{"id":759030,"date":"2026-06-12T09:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T09:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/759030\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T09:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T09:48:17","slug":"opinion-game-4-was-tough-but-the-spurs-have-had-a-magical-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/759030\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Game 4 was tough, but the Spurs have had a magical year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"San<\/p>\n

San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama looks down toward the court during the fourth quarter of Game 4 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden. The Spurs lost that game in epic fashion, but fans should not lose sight of a magical season.<\/p>\n

Sam Owens\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n

This is being written hours after Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks, a game whose memory will forever sour the stomachs and dispositions of Spurs fans.<\/p>\n

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Because of our\u00a0deadlines, this column will go online before Game 5, and it will appear in print after.<\/p>\n

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By then, this series will either be over or the Spurs will be headed back to New York for Game 6.<\/p>\n

But as for Game 4: This. One. Hurt. Wow!<\/p>\n

There were many scenarios that people imagined Wednesday night for Game 4, scenarios that included either team winning in a close game or either team winning in a blowout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What no one imagined \u2014 what no Spur fan conceived of \u2014 was that a game in which the Spurs were up 27 points at halftime<\/a> would, by the time it was over, be competing for the top spot on the list of worst playoff losses in the franchise\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

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There is Game 7 of the 1979 Eastern Conference Finals against the Washington Bullets, a series the Spurs lost after taking a 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n

Game 7 of the 1990 Western Conference Semifinals against the Portland Trailblazers when Rod\u00a0Strickland threw a no-look, behind-the-back pass that went out of bounds.<\/p>\n

There is\u00a0Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 Derek Fisher\u2019s game winner with 0.4 seconds left in Game 5 of the 2004 Western Conference Semifinals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is Game 6 of the 2013\u00a0NBA Finals against Miami in which the Spurs had a five-point lead and were 30 seconds away from winning the championship when they let it get away. They then went on to lose Game 7.<\/p>\n

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Wednesday night hit different, was more shocking, as Spurs fans went from relishing a blowout that would have evened the series at 2-2 and reestablished home court advantage to witnessing a historic collapse that left the Spurs down 3-1.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t recall the city being as crushed by those losses as by this one, taking recency bias into account.<\/p>\n

If you are a Spurs fan, the greatest pain you\u2019ve experienced the past few days probably wasn\u2019t related to life problems, personal health or the state of the world. It’s what happened Wednesday night in Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

For Spurs fans who experienced the championship runs during the team’s dynastic era, this postseason has been a reminder of the dramatic ups and downs, the range of emotions fans experience during playoff series.<\/p>\n

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This incredible team of young dynamos led by a generational superstar caught us off guard, and we weren\u2019t ready for the unexpected highs they\u2019ve given us all season.<\/p>\n

Fans have had to get into playoff shape, remembering how the ecstasy of one game can quickly be replaced by disappointment in the next,\u00a0 remembering not to get too cocky when the team is playing on all cylinders and not to give up all hope when the team is off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since Game 4, I\u2019ve been struck by the anger some Spurs fans expressed on social media. All sports fans have the right to be critical of their teams, the players and the coaches. Being emotional is understandable, but some folks take it personal, as if the Spurs blew a 27-point lead just to spite them.<\/p>\n

Wednesday night was difficult because within an hour we went from clearly seeing the path to the championship to wondering if the Knicks\u2019 road to the title will end in a\u00a0coronation in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

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Wednesday night was devastating because we\u2019ve seen this Spurs team do amazing things during the postseason, but we couldn\u2019t imagine them blowing a 27-point lead after proving that the stage wasn\u2019t too big for them.<\/p>\n

But if they could do the unimaginable in losing a game in which they were leading by as many as 20 in the fourth quarter, couldn\u2019t they also do the unimaginable and win the series in seven games?<\/p>\n

By the time this column appears in print, we\u2019ll know if there\u2019s a Game 6 and with it a chance for a Game 7.<\/p>\n

Passion brings joy and pain. Being fans of a sports team is like falling in love and owning pets. You\u2019re guaranteed to have your heart broken at times.<\/p>\n

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Think back to that Saturday night two weeks ago when the Spurs won the Western Conference Finals, the euphoria that swept over the city, the honking and cheering and bonding. Nothing can take that joy and those moments away.<\/p>\n

The Spurs\u2019 season will end no later than June 19. This Spurs team wasn\u2019t supposed to still be playing in June 2026. If heartache this June is because the Spurs lose in the Finals, that’s the price we pay for this unexpected, magical season. It\u2019s worth it.<\/p>\n

The magic may not be over yet.<\/p>\n

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Cary.Clack@express-news.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama looks down toward the court during the fourth quarter of Game 4…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,6,969,474,4075,4074,534],"class_list":["post-759030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio-spurs","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sanantonio","tag-sanantoniospurs","tag-spurs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116736511482786814","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}