Throughout the playoffs, the San Antonio Spurs faced many adversities and still stood strong. That was until the Finals series against the New York Knicks. No matter how resilient the Spurs stayed, the Knicks doubled their efforts and finally took the Larry O’Brien trophy in the end. The Spurs, meanwhile, continued to falter, losing double-digit leads and making wrong decisions. But it wasn’t all because of the five players on the floor.

The Spurs front office will now be looking at the writing on the wall, which is the fate of any team that almost makes it. For them, the biggest decision would be whether to keep Mitch Johnson at the helm or not. Considering the lapses during the entire Finals run, that could be easy. Meanwhile, someone has also pointed out a last-minute blunder he made in Game 5 that cost the Spurs their season and a chance at the championship title.

“Spurs coach Mitch Johnson thought the shot clock resets to 24 after an offensive rebound of a FT and told Kornet to foul. That is incorrect; it resets to 14,” The BBall Breakdown account, with over 150k followers, known for basketball analysis, wrote on X. “This means they just needed to get a stop, and would’ve had 11 secs to run a play to tie the game. Instead, OG basically puts the game out of reach.”

After Josh Hart missed his second free throw, Mitchell Robinson grabbed an offensive rebound. With 23 seconds remaining on the clock and New York leading 91-88, the ball was ultimately passed to OG Anunoby standing at the half-court. But before he could even attempt to dribble or shoot, the Spurs’ Luke Kornet grabbed his left arm to concede a foul.

While Kornet was simply doing what his head coach was asking him to do from the sidelines, this became the biggest mistake they could have committed at such a crucial time.

Anunoby went to the charity stripe, scored one free throw, missed another, but still gave the Knicks a four-point lead. With barely any time left, it left the elimination game out of reach for the Spurs. And turns out, it was a bigger mishap than them losing that 29-point lead in Game 4.

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson mistakenly instructed Kornet to foul after an offensive rebound on a missed free throw, believing the shot clock would reset to 24 seconds. NBA rules reset the shot clock to 14 seconds in this situation since 2018, meaning a defensive stop would have left the Spurs with 11 seconds to tie the game.

If they had forced a defensive stop, this would have given them a final possession to run a designed play to tie the game. Instead, instructing Kornet to foul gave the opponent free throws and effectively ended their chances. It also ties down to his judgment call of trusting De’Aaron Fox more than Dylan Harper.

In Game 4, when the Spurs blew a historic 29-point lead, Fox was heavily criticized for a late-game sequence. Instead of protecting a one-point lead, the veteran point guard attacked the rim, which OG swatted away. Despite this, the head coach was adamant about not changing his plans and still kept Fox ahead of Dylan Harper.

“I don’t get into social media. I think I’ve probably been fired 212 times, and we’ve traded Fox 72 times. People have their opinions. I don’t care,” Johnson said. “De’Aaron Fox will have the basketball in his hands at the end of the game tomorrow.”

But again, that proved fatal. Fox finished the championship-clinching loss shooting just 3-for-15 from the field and scoring only seven points in 37 minutes as New York completed a 4-1 series victory. Comparatively, Harper went 10-of-19 in 31 minutes for 25 points coming off the bench. Overall, Fox averaged 12.8 points in this series in over 36 minutes while Harper averaged 18 points per game against the Knicks in just 31 minutes.

Already, there were reports that many of Johnson’s decisions during the playoffs were switched late, as the team went according to what former head coach Gregg Popovich said.

Then, guard Devin Vassell revealed that Harper had been frustrated with both his playing time and role throughout the season.

Dylan Harper’s reaction to Mitch Johnson’s strategy

“Dylan, I think we all knew he was talented,” Vassell said to the media on Saturday. “I don’t know anybody of it. If anybody knew he was this talented, probably besides himself. He was upset with playing time and different roles that he was in, but what we needed him most, he stepped up, and we have a star in the making.”

In his playoff debut, Dylan Harper had multiple 20-point games and other games in which he affected play on both ends of the floor, brushing off with double-doubles on most nights. He became the second-youngest player behind Kobe Bryant with a 20-point playoff game off the bench and joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only rookie to score 27 on 80 percent shooting.

Then tensions also emerged when Dylan Harper reposted a TikTok video mocking Fox’s Game 1 shooting, comparing him to a struggling James Harden. It was shortly deleted, but added tension to Fox’s mentorship role and Mitch Johnson’s strategy. What happens as the offseason begins for the Spurs remains to be seen.