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The Spurs were on the verge of completing an unlikely 13-point comeback in the seventh game against the Nuggets on Saturday, but a huge mistake in the defense left them without a shot at the final possession of the match. In the end, this mistake pushed them out of the playoffs.
San Antonio led 90-86, with 26 seconds in the fourth quarter. Basic mathematics say that it's a two-possession game. The Spurs had to intentionally commit a foul, send the Nuggets on the foul line and extend the game if they wanted a chance to come back.
But despite Gregg Popovich signaling his team to make a mistake, he did not do it. The Spurs let Jamal Murray dribble the clock to the second, then hoist three hours to the buzzer. San Antonio recovered the rebound with less than three seconds to play. The Spurs never even had the chance to succeed at the end of the game.
It was like they agreed to their fate before the end of the match.
San Antonio is normally considered one of the best-trained teams in the NBA, and rightly so: Popovich has long been revered as one of the best brains in basketball. But this defensive brain whore was inexcusable. It was J.R. Smith forgetting how long he stayed on the shooting clock. Except this time he was not a single player. It was a Spurs team that should have realized that there was not enough time on the clock to get the ball.
Even after recovering the ball, they would have needed a conversion to four-point play. It did not happen. They should have committed an immediate foul while there was 26 seconds remaining in the clock.
This one will sting the Spurs for a moment. They had the opportunity to extend the game to the line of free throws. Instead, they never even had another possession. San Antonio was eliminated and they did not serve.
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