The Spurs played one of the most entertaining games of the season in Denver on Saturday. Unfortunately, it ended with a painful loss in overtime for the Silver and Black, which helped confirm the concerns of the skeptics about San Antonio\u2019s chances to execute down the stretch against top-level opponents in games with playoff intensity.<\/p>\n
In reality, the loss, while annoying, is actually encouraging for the Spurs. It doesn\u2019t make it sting any less, because the team seemed to have it in the bag a couple of times, but it showed just how high the ceiling of this group is, even when they are not at their best. Let\u2019s break it down.<\/p>\n
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The Spurs made a lot of mistakes and still almost won the game<\/p>\n
Close losses to other contenders are discouraging when a team plays almost flawless basketball, and it\u2019s still not enough. When your best falls short, it\u2019s time to reconsider whether you can actually measure up with the top dogs. But the Spurs did not play near their best down the stretch, and they still had a chance to beat an opponent the consensus believes can win a championship.<\/p>\n
While rewatching the fourth quarter, here are the mistakes in judgment I could see:<\/p>\n
With Jokic off the court and Valanciunas reeling defensively, Wembanyama takes a pull-up three with 18 seconds on the clock instead of running anything. Not one pass on the play.<\/p>\n
With Jokic back on the floor, the Spurs get Dylan Harper a switch to attack Jokic and he settles for a three instead of driving to collapse the defense or try to get to the rim, where his finishing is elite.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama is guarding Jokic. It gets physical, and Wemby flops to get the official\u2019s attention. They don\u2019t call the foul, and Jokic has a clear path to score at the rim.<\/p>\n
After a Keldon Johnson missed three, the Spurs get back in transition, but no one rushes to pick up Jamal Murray as the trailer, and Murray hits a lightly contested three.<\/p>\n
Keldon Johnson passes up a good three with eight seconds in the shot clock. Spurs try to reset with Harper attacking with the shot winding down, but turn it over, and allow a transition bucket.<\/p>\n
Again, these are just errors in judgment, not execution. The possessions in which the ball got sticky and the Spurs didn\u2019t find an open shooter quickly enough, or, for example, when De\u2019Aaron Fox closed out too recklessly on a three for a four-point play, are not counted. The focus is also on process over result, so Harrison Barnes airballing an open three or Castle travelling on an isolation against Hardway Jr., for example, aren\u2019t on this list.<\/p>\n
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No team is perfect, and the Nuggets also had their errors, but those are a lot of mistakes for San Antonio, especially against an opponent that can capitalize on them. Looking at that list, you\u2019d imagine the Spurs got crushed in the fourth quarter, but they only lost by four and held a two-possession lead in the final minute.<\/p>\n
The coaching and execution have plenty of room to improve<\/p>\n
Now, since the biggest knock on the Spurs as legitimate contenders is their youth and lack of experience, some would say that the fact they lost because of poor decision-making shows that there are plenty of reasons for concern. But the game was also lost strategically, and that shouldn\u2019t happen in a playoff series where obvious adjustments are expected.<\/p>\n
Again, just focusing on the fourth quarter and overtime, there were plenty of tweaks Mitch Johnson could have made to counter the Nuggets\u2019 play. One of the main ones involved Nikola Jokic. Denver hid The Joker on Keldon Johnson, Julian Champagnie, and Stephon Castle, alternatively. Instead of getting the big man involved in the main action and forcing him to defend either Wembanyama or a guard after a switch, they largely allowed Jokic to rest on defense, as he stood near the corner, barely contesting shots if the ball moved to his man.<\/p>\n
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So if they were not hunting Jokic, what were the Spurs doing on offense? They were running a lot of their plays through Wembanyama at the elbow. When Wemby got Jamal Murray on a switch, that was a good outcome, as he either scored or someone got an open three after a double team. The problem was that whenever Aaron Gordon managed to recover and guard Wemby, he struggled against one of the best defenders in the league, either taking off-balance shots or holding the ball for too long and passing out with the shot clock about to expire.<\/p>\n
Is it worrisome that the adjustments never came? Only if you believe that Johnson wouldn\u2019t make them if these two teams met in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
The Spurs probably needed this loss to keep them sharp<\/p>\n
It has to be at least somewhat reassuring to see that this Spurs team is so talented that there were a couple of plays away from winning the game. If Wemby doesn\u2019t botch the switch in the tying Nuggets\u2019 bucket in regulation or hits the would-be game-winner, the discourse would be completely different. Had Fox made a slightly better pass or had Vassell been able to control the ball in the alley-oop attempt to tie it with 23 seconds to go, maybe San Antonio would have ended up winning.<\/p>\n
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At the same time, a lot of games, especially close postseason games, come down to a handful of plays. The Spurs need to be the ones who are sharper, and they were not getting tested much in the past couple of months. There are no moral victories for contenders, but there are learning experiences, and this was one. Even the players agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cA game like this is something that we needed, especially with the games we\u2019ve been playing the past week and a half, with some teams that are not fighting for what we are fighting for,\u201d said Julian Champagnie.<\/a> \u201cObviously, we lost, and that\u2019s not the outcome you want to leave with, but I think that when we go back and watch the film, there will be a lot of valuable things that we can take from that.\u201d<\/p>\n