Mitch Johnson repeats critical mistake that may cost Spurs a championship

Mitch Johnson was a Coach of the Year finalist for a reason, and he deserved that recognition, but he's made crucial errors in this series against the Knicks. The Spurs had a 29-point lead in Game 4, and at some point when New York made their run, he should have demanded that his guys attack the paint. Instead, they jacked up three after three in the second half and let their opponent back in the game.

Still, even with some bad offense here and there, San Antonio is usually able to fall back on their defense. Even that faltered. A large reason why was the 7'4" guy playing 44 minutes two nights after logging 38. It's the same mistake Coach Johnson has made in the past, and it's come back to bite the Silver and Black yet again.

Wembanyama isn't conditioned well enough to play that long

Wemby has proven that he can play large minutes, but you still have to give him a break every now and then. When Mitch doesn't do that, the Spurs usually suffer in one way or another.

In March, the Spurs lost an overtime game to the Denver Nuggets 136-134. There's no shame in losing to Nikola Jokic's squad, but it was a winnable game that saw Wemby fade in the second half. After a brief rest in the third, he came back in with a minute left and played the entire 12 minutes of the fourth quarter and every second of overtime.

Because he is the phenom that he is, Vic was able to muster enough energy to make some shots, but he was lazy on defense. There's always a cost when the Spurs star doesn't get some rest; in this game, it was his defense. On November 14, San Antonio lost a close game to the Warriors—Wemby played 20:29 of a possible 24 minutes, including the full 12 minutes in the fourth quarter.

The Silver and Black lost Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals to the Timberwolves by two points. Guess how many minutes Wemby played in the fourth quarter? If you guessed 12, you'd be correct.

Now, they don't lose every single game in which Vic played the full fourth quarter. They won Game 3 like that. But they also gave him more rest in the third period, and he had two days off before that. I know we call him "The Alien," but he is a human being, and a big one at that. Moving so much at that size takes a lot of energy, and finding ways to rest him should be nonnegotiable.

Failing to do that is hurting the energy of the team at the end of close games, and Johnson should know better by now. Now the Silver and Black have just added another brutal NBA Finals loss to their resume. It doesn't hurt as badly as the 2013 Ray Allen shot, but it's pretty damn close.

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