For four quarters in Game 4 of the 2026 NBA Finals, the San Antonio Spurs looked like a dynasty in the making. Victor Wembanyama was dominating both ends of the floor. Dylan Harper was carving up the Knicks’ defense. The Spurs led by 29 points at halftime in Madison Square Garden, and the Larry O’Brien Trophy seemed destined for Texas.
Then the basketball gods reminded everyone that experience wins championships.
The Knicks stormed back, completed the largest comeback in Finals history, and went on to close out the series in five games. San Antonio’s 94-90 loss in Game 5 on Saturday night was a fitting end to a series defined by second-half collapses and rookie mistakes — both from the players and from first-year head coach Mitch Johnson.
“I think that compared to anything before, this is the biggest lesson of my life, the biggest learning moment,” Wembanyama said after posting 19 points and 14 rebounds in the season-ending loss. “I don’t think we could have learned more and gained more experience in one playoff run and in one season, and personally in 18 months. It’s been hard and full of lessons.”
The Second-Half Problem That Refused to Go Away
San Antonio outscored New York in every first quarter of the series — 158 total points compared to the Knicks’ 101. They were the aggressor, the hunter, the team dictating tempo.
But basketball is a four-quarter game, and the Spurs crumbled after halftime with alarming consistency. New York outscored San Antonio 268-228 in second-half points across the five games. San Antonio’s shooting plummeted from 45.9 percent in the first half to 37.4 percent in the second half.
The pattern was the same every night: the Spurs would build a double-digit lead, then watch it evaporate as the Knicks’ veteran poise took over. In Game 1, they scored just nine points in the final seven minutes. In Game 2, Wembanyama threw the ball off Stephon Castle’s back with 10 seconds left, leading to a Jalen Brunson free throw and a one-point loss. In Game 4, the 29-point collapse. In Game 5, they blew a 16-point fourth-quarter lead on their home floor.
“I learned (that) the margin of error is very thin,” Wembanyama said. “Our dominant stints are absolute. We absolutely dominated for most of the series. But our errors, our mistakes, were punished so hard that we can’t have ups and downs like this. The ups are okay. The downs are the reason we lost.”
Mitch Johnson’s Rookie Growing Pains
Johnson deserved every vote he got for Coach of the Year after leading San Antonio to a 62-20 record — the first 60-win season in franchise history since 2016. But against Mike Brown and the Knicks, the 39-year-old coach looked every bit a first-timer on the biggest stage.
He failed to call timeouts during New York’s second-half runs. He leaned too heavily on Wembanyama, who visibly fatigued late in games. He stuck with pre-determined rotations instead of riding hot hands — most notably ignoring Harper, who was torching the Knicks off the bench, while continuing to run offense through De’Aaron Fox, who struggled mightily in the series.
“The simple consistencies, we didn’t deserve to win the games,” Johnson admitted. “NBA games are long. Everything is much more on stage during the Finals when everybody’s watching. We weren’t ready to win an NBA championship. The better team won.”
The Clock Is Already Ticking
Here’s the uncomfortable truth for San Antonio: the championship window doesn’t wait for young teams to grow up.
Wembanyama is eligible for a five-year, $251 million rookie max extension on July 6 — likely to exceed $301 million given his All-NBA and Defensive Player of the Year trajectory. Fox is locked in at $55 million per year through 2030. Castle will be extension-eligible after next season. Harper, after a Finals coming-out party, won’t accept a bench role for long.
That’s four max or near-max contracts competing for cap space, and the Spurs have to decide which pieces fit around their generational superstar. Fox, handpicked by the franchise at the 2025 trade deadline, suddenly looks like the odd man out after his erratic Finals performances. According to multiple league sources, the front office is already weighing trade scenarios involving the veteran point guard to acquire more complementary pieces — possibly a wing like Trey Murphy III or a veteran presence like Julius Randle.
“The pain is real, but I’m not running away from it,” Wembanyama said. “I’m using it to fuel me. I’m not satisfied with not winning. But as I said, this is the biggest lesson of my life. As a team, there’s no better experience than what we just lived.”
The Spurs may have lost the Finals, but they proved something more important: they belong. Now the hard part begins — turning belonging into banners.
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