Mitch Johnson blunder cost Spurs the game, but no one seems to care

The San Antonio lost Game 2 of the NBA Finals in excruciating fashion. After roaring all the way back to take the lead, Victor Wembanyama turned the ball over in a critical spot. He compounded the mistake when he fouled Knicks star Jalen Brunson, sending him to the free-throw line for the game-winning free throw.

Without absolving Wembanyama of his mistake, that should have never decided the game. Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson made a massive blunder that is flying under the radar, and it is Johnson, not Wembanyama, who deserves the most blame for the loss.

Johnson certainly deserves credit for what he has done this season with the Spurs. Stepping in for Gregg Popovich on a lottery team last season was one thing, but this year he has overseen the leveling up of this Spurs team from young and interesting to young and dominant. They had the league's second-best record, a smothering defense, and many players had career years under his watch.

Mitch Johnson made a big mistake

That does not mean that he is perfect, however, and he is losing the coaching battle against veteran head coach Mike Brown here in the Finals. What is worse, he made a blunder at the end of the game that is so common, most just assume it's required for a coach to make that mistake in any close game.

The blunder is how to use a foul to give.

On the Knicks' penultimate possession of the game, Jalen Brunson was sizing up the defense from the perimeter, tie game. The Spurs had not yet entered the bonus, so a non-shooting foul was going to merely allow for a reset, not free throws. This "free" foul is commonly called the "foul to give," as a team would enter the bonus after it occurs. One foul without catastrophic results.

Mitch Johnson did what many coaches would do, which is to tell their team to foul the opponent just when they get into their move. Such a move would burn some clock and force the team to run a different play. Stephon Castle did just that as Brunson started to move toward the basket.

The problem is that once that foul is used, every subsequent foul leads to free throws. Fighting through screens. Bodying an opponent receiving a pass. Over the backs. And, yes, bumping into the offensive player right after they steal the ball on the sideline of a tied game.

Wembanyama was wrong - and set up to fail

Wembanyama should not have thrown the pass to Stephon Castle, who was not watching for it. He frequently brings the ball up himself, and Castle needed to run and fill his lane. That is 95 percent Wembanyama's fault - and to his credit, he owned that in his postgame comments.

Then he bumped Brunson, who took marginal contact and pretended that Muhammad Ali had just decked him. Flop or embellishment, that's up for debate, but it was probably enough contact to hold up under challenge.

Yet it didn't need to decide the game. Brunson didn't need to be granted a trip to the free-throw line. If Johnson had not called for a pointless foul from Castle twenty seconds earlier, then the Knicks would merely have begun the play from the sideline, with the score still tied. Wembanyama and company could have shut them down and forced overtime, or even had a small chance at hitting a game-winning shot themselves.

Is it the kind of decision that will haunt Johnson? Perhaps he feels it was a mistake, but the popular media doesn't seem to care. Wembanyama is wilting under the pressure. Stephon Castle is too young and is making mistakes. On and on.

The reality is, this team made two huge blunders in the final minutes. One was Wembanyama's turnover. And the other was Mitch Johnson's call to foul for no good reason.

And together, they have the Spurs in a very large hole.

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