'Poor decisions': Mitch Johnson brutally calls out Spurs after Game 5 loss to Thunder
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'Poor decisions': Mitch Johnson brutally calls out Spurs after Game 5 loss to Thunder originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The San Antonio Spurs are a loss away from getting eliminated in the NBA Playoffs. This means that crucial changes need to be made so that they could extend their series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. While there be massive shifts in the schemes and rotations to patch up their woes in Game 5, Coach Mitch Johnson outlined one flaw that all of his players have to fix. It all boiled down to bad decision-making on the court.
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Coach Johnson calls out Spurs for bad decisions in Game 5 loss to Thunder
There were a plethora of reasons for why the Spurs lost Game 5 to the Thunder. Coach Mitch Johnson saw his squad give up 22 points off turnovers, commit 29 fouls which led to 28 free throws for the Thunder, and go 29.3% from three-point range all in one NBA Playoffs game. He had a very clear diagnosis of what the Spurs need to fix if they want to keep competing, via Christian Clark of The Athletic.
"There were a lot of things where we were in wrong positions or wrong coverages. Poor decisions. In a game like tonight, you give yourself no chance if that’s the level you’re going to play at for the 48 minutes. That’s probably the easiest in terms of surface-level stuff," the Spurs head coach said.
Coach Johnson seemed to have already figured out the Thunder in Game 4. They forced Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Co. to just 82 points which was the Thunder's worst NBA Playoffs output since 2020. Unfortunately, the pendulum swung back and hit the Spurs badly which means they are now in win-or-go-home position. This led to Victor Wembanyama getting locked up and only producing 20 points on a rough 26.7% field goal percentage. The superstar only found success with 12 of those points coming from the free throw line.
These small decisions when coverages are insufficient, offensive sets aren't going too well, and everything in between impacts an NBA Playoffs game a lot because they snowball. Hopefully, the Spurs are able to change this and extend this Thunder series to a decisive Game 7.