There were quite a few coaching missteps in this game plus about 4 atrocious plays by Fox in the 4th quarter.

When we began to struggle in the 3rd I would have liked to have seen a lot more of our bench, at least for 5 minutes. We played our best 6 through about 20 minutes of struggle and none of those guys got time to sit. Yes, our bench sucks but if we're giving up 10 points in 5 minutes i would rather have a reset with starters on the bench than have them get gassed and never bounce back.

Most of the other glaring coaching inadequacies have been covered.

The most inexcusable Fox play was the one where he crossed half court, picked up his dribble with a defender nowhere near him, threw the ball between Wemby and Castle out of bounds as both were barely crossing the half court line and his defender was still 3+ feet away. It was a completely brain-dead play and would have been inexcusable for a junior high PG much less an NBA max PG. In a game you lose by one, every play is magnified. You cant have low IQ, low efficiency players infecting the young core. Trade him for anything we can get and go get a vet PG like Conley and use the cash savings on a solid PF.

Guitarsoup said:

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Out of bounds? 🤷🏻

Stephon Castle appeared far more surprised given what looked like a pretty noticeable shove that went uncalled.

Maybe another camera angle clears it up later.

For now, this feels incorrect.#PorVida #NBAFinals #GoSpursGo pic.twitter.com/vffQEMab0u

— SpursRΞPORTΞR (@SpursReporter) June 11, 2026

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Saw this live and knew it was a foul then... play happened to fast to be clean.

Still a colossally dumb play by Fox.

The whole team just absolutely **** themselves in the second half.

Blame coaching all you want but Mitch didn't get them into a huddle and say "just dribble for 5 seconds and jack up threes".

Wemby needs to get some muscle on him.

SF2004 said:

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Guitarsoup said:

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Out of bounds? 🤷🏻

Stephon Castle appeared far more surprised given what looked like a pretty noticeable shove that went uncalled.

Maybe another camera angle clears it up later.

For now, this feels incorrect.#PorVida #NBAFinals #GoSpursGo pic.twitter.com/vffQEMab0u

— SpursRΞPORTΞR (@SpursReporter) June 11, 2026

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Saw this live and knew it was a foul then... play happened to fast to be clean.

Still a colossally dumb play by Fox.

The whole team just absolutely **** themselves in the second half.

Blame coaching all you want but Mitch didn't get them into a huddle and say "just dribble for 5 seconds and jack up threes".

Wemby needs to get some muscle on him.

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Fox going for that layup is inexcusable regardless, but sure looks like a foul and even before OG's arm got there, there was a lot of body contact as Fox slowed and OG accelerated into him.

In any event, it is beyond idiotic for Fox to not have dribbled that out. They were forced to foul us and we had 5 FT shooters on the court. Harper, Vassell, Castle and Fox are all shooting 85% for the series from the line. Wemby obviously dipped, but he was around 85% going into that game.

Dribble it out, get fouled, they burn more time AND we still had a foul to give to burn more time on the other end. That puts them into a position where they have time for a 3 to tie, but no time for a rebound... a rebound that only happened because Fox ****ed up his assignment.

Here is every terrible play from De’Aron Fox in the second half pic.twitter.com/CQrPOTVZeO

— MD (@mike_daddino) June 11, 2026

You gotta be getting paid to be this bad.

Analytics rant incoming.

This is the problem with people that obsess over analytics with a complete lack of nuance for how to apply it to the game. Yes, technically the highest percentage shots if you can't get easy lay ups, dunks, and mismatch post ups is a 3 pointer; however, you need to take game situations into account. The answer when your 3 has gone ice cold in the regular season is just to keep shooting because you will eventually return to the mean, and singular games are fairly meaningless. The answer in a best of 7 series when your 3 goes ice cold when you are down 2-1 in the series is not to keep chucking away (especially early in the shot clock outside of clear cut wide open looks) when you have a 20 point lead in the 4th as the return to the mean might take longer than you are willing to wait. And it most certainly isn't to keep chucking when you are in the bonus early in the quarter.

This is also ignoring that technically analytics would tell you that being more aggressive with drives and interior play while in the bonus is the more efficient play when compared to 3 point shots given around 10% of drives and post-ups lead to free throws, and that is obviously not including non-shooting fouls which would obviously increase the free throw rate while in the bonus. Meanwhile, drawing fouls on jump shots is incredibly unlikely unless you're flopping like SGA.

But this is all ignoring that free throws, layups and dunks are the most efficient shots in the game, not 3s. The goal of any NBA offense is to create these opportunities whenever and as much as possible. When you stop hunting for these opportunities aggressively your offense becomes more one dimensional and becomes easier for a defense to guard, which can exacerbate a cold shooting spell as we saw in the second half. Yes, we missed several open 3's but we took a ton of Ill-advised, off-balanced, off the dribble, hand in the face ones, as well, which we know are not efficient shots.

I went back and watched every single offensive possession in the second half. We went into the bonus with over 7 minutes left in the game. In the first 4 and a half minutes of the 4th prior to going into the bonus we had the ball in the paint on 7 possessions with all but two of those possessions leading to fouls or points. We actually did great at getting to the paint early in the quarter. In the final 7 minutes of the game, we got the ball in the paint…..3 ****ing times…3, and one of those was a De'Aaron bailed drive which I probably shouldn't even count. The other two lead to fouls. Now you might wonder if it was NYK's defensive pressure that lead to the lack of getting into the paint, but that was clearly not the case. We had several inexplicable unforced or barely forced turnovers, and a ton of ill-advised jumpers. Even the two jumpers made by Wemby and Fox were terrible shots that just happened to go in. Meanwhile, there was zero off-ball movement. Outside of a few ball screens Wemby set, there was no movement on offense outside of the man with the ball. I did not see a single off-ball screen in the final 7 minutes of the game, which is what I picked up on in real time.

The quick jump shots also hurt us on the defensive end, as well, as we were frequently were out of position as the Knicks pushed the ball on each missed shot which frequently lead to open 3s.

All this to say, the only thing outrageous is claiming an opinion regarding a nuanced scenario is "not debatable".

Sorry for the rant, but I'm still pissed about this game.

Yeah, I know Harrison Barnes has been struggling but I don't know how he doesn't get minutes in the second half when we are clearly melting down.

Give me a guy who has been there before over KJ. KJ is unplayable at this point.

But the problem is he clearly didn't tell them not too. The discussion should be to move the ball, chew the clock, look for a good shot. Not take 8 straight threes. This type of collapse has the potential to mentally destroy players. Charles Barkley was right, that was dumb basketball and that comes straight from the coach.

Pop would have been chewin ass on some of those early threes. They were open for a reason. The knicks knew the only way to come back was to speed up the game and get as many possessions as possible and our coach seemed absolutely clueless.

Sorry I know this is probably the third time I say this, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to accept the absolutely ridiculous collapse we witnessed last night.

Just monumentally bad.

I know the series isn't over, but giving away two games (or three if you count game 1) is just such a mental beating.

Especially after how much fun the first half was. Complete domination, full control of the series in our grasp.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Sorry I know this is probably the third time I say this, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to accept the absolutely ridiculous collapse we witnessed last night.

Just monumentally bad.

I know the series isn't over, but giving away two games (or three if you count game 1) is just such a mental beating.

Especially after how much fun the first half was. Complete domination, full control of the series in our grasp.

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If you look at the last few minutes of each of the losses, it is obvious who the more composed, experienced team is. For whatever reason, that didn't happen in Game 3, but otherwise the close out times of the games have been just brutally one-sided.

Seems like an experience thing.

But last night was an abomination. You should never lose a 29 point lead, ever.

As soon as we came out at the half, there was a play where I think we gave up an offensive rebound and they knocked down a 3 and I told my wife, "That's exactly the kind of play that lets them get back into it".

And it was all downhill from there. All of our bad habits came to fruition. The easiest way to describe it is, we don't value every possession with ANY sense of urgency.

The only person that I can confidently say wanted the basketball more than anybody else on the court was our rookie, Harper. When he goes for a rebound, he is attacking the ball and taking it from you. Everyone else stands there and waits on the ball to come to them.

Infuriating.

Sick to my stomach

Hank the Grifter said:

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Here is every terrible play from De’Aron Fox in the second half pic.twitter.com/CQrPOTVZeO

— MD (@mike_daddino) June 11, 2026

You gotta be getting paid to be this bad.

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That's Terry Rozier level.

It's not even debatable that Harper is the better option. That was true last night and will be even more evident next year. Fox is at best our 4th best player, yet he's getting paid like a #1 and his shooting volume is a #2 scorer level. That all needs to change ASAP.

Spurs should be 3-1 with even halfway decent play by Fox down the stretch. I don't see how you bring him back next year in the same roll after that collapse.

The trade was smart and almost worked to perfection, but then Fox had to revert to his low IQ bad habits and here we are.

I would seriously trade him and bring in a provenPF with the salary and a then find a vet PG like Conley, like Paul was a couple year ago.

If that's not viable or more likely no takers for his salary, then you push him to the bench and let his high volume inefficient scoring at least hold serve with the second unit. Maybe he will get his form back being the guy on the second unit rather than being second or 3rd option with the starters.

At a minimum his minutes and usage rate needs to flip with Harper as soon as Game 5 but certainly next season.

It's just so disappointing because with even halfway decent play from Fox we are on our way to another championship. We brought him in and paid him for just these moments and he came up so small. That joke of a clutch player of the year title is so far in the rearview mirror.

I can't see how anyone would think throwing 3s up early in the shot clock is a good idea when protecting a 20 point lead in the 4th after such a horrid 3rd. I'm not opposed to continuing to take 3s but burn clock. At the putrid rate of scoring, simply burning clock impacts the outcome. You can dig in all you want on analytics. The flow of the game matters. That's why the collapse is on everyone. Coaching should have stepped in. They didn't. And players continued to fail. They all own that turd sandwich.

AggieEP said:

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The game is more complex than analytics, no doubt there. But it is also far more complex than "pound it inside."

I think the central disconnect on the discussion we're having here is that some of you do not seem to understand that the flow of the game, the pressure, the Knicks defense all contributed to our shot selection. Mitch doesn't want any of his shooters to be gun shy, so he has to project confidence in them to hit the shots he knows they can. If he starts taking away green lights from guys, then we all of a sudden become way easier to defend when Champ, KJ, Devin are no longer helping to spread the floor.

Coaching is a delicate balance between guiding the action and knowing when you have to be more directive and force certain things on the course to happen. I think Mitch is at the stage where he hasn't quite figured out when and how to be more directive and control the action as the coach. Last night he believed that the system that gave us a 29 point lead would ultimately figure itself out and we'd go on a run to put the game away. That never happened though, and he now looks like a dope. I hope Mitch will figure it out eventually, but right now he's been very below average in late game situations.

I however cannot disagree more with the crowd on here that thinks that "running clock" is somehow a good strategy. That is almost guaranteed to create stagnant possessions and kill offensive rhythm. You run your offense and rely on your NBA level players to make the right decisions and make open shots.

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Under no circumstance should we be shooting 3s off of one pass, in transition, or without trying to run any kind of action when we are up by 29 points.

Nobody is saying "don't shoot 3s", but your goal should be to look for the BEST shot when you're up 29, not the first look. Ideally while you eat up 15 seconds of clock doing so.

PLENTY of those "looks" we could have gotten 15 or 20 seconds into the shot clock.

We should have had Harper out there attacking the basket because he was the ONLY one in the second half with any dog in him. Hell, I would've rather let CB go out there and mix it up. I would've taken reckless, aggressive play over the timid turnover BS and quick trigger 3s we were shooting.

How do you not attack KAT over, and over, and over with his foul trouble? And then to add on us being in bonus?

Sure, maybe the refs weren't calling stuff. But just as we've discussed ad nauseum on this thread about the Knicks ref complaints, they can't blow the whistle if you aren't even trying to get to the basket and draw fouls. You have to force the issue and MAKE them call it.

Also, good for everyone to remember, that last play when OG tips it in, that's the embodiment of what we're missing when you look at the screenshot as he makes contact with the ball.

Castle being forced to box out KAT
Devin and Harper leaping as high as they can
Fox not boxing out, standing there uselessly
Wemby on the perimeter after contesting the shot and then trying to scramble back in.

and OG skying over Devin and Harper for the game winning tip.


On a possession where we absolutely had to get the defensive rebound we are playing 4 guards and Wemby. With the championship maybe on the line, we're relying on Castle, Harper and Vassell to outrebound OG and KAT. Super bad plan, but one that is forced on us because of personnel. Absolutely at any cost need to find someone with size that can defend and rebound for situations just like that. (Would have been nice to be able to put Sochan in for that one possession....)

Terrbile Fn coaching. Just terrible.