The ebbs and flows of postseason desperation (Part 2)

In retrospect, this probably could’ve been an ongoing, postseason-long series of articles given the way these playoffs have unfolded for San Antonio. Perhaps like a running diary for a young team penciling entries of new experiences on the fly.

The particular page they’ve just turned was a dark one — an account of a moment in time that will be impossible to forget, no matter how badly they wish they could. The largest blown lead in NBA Finals history belongs to the San Antonio Spurs, and that likely isn’t changing for quite some time.

It’s a sentence that’s almost unbelievable in multiple ways: One, that they’re even here on this stage in the first place; and two, that the resilient team we’ve watched all season was capable of such a nuclear meltdown. But there has been a consistent thread during the playoffs for these Spurs, especially through the last couple of rounds: They’ve been at their absolute best whenever real desperation has sets in, and there is no other option but to win.

But for whatever reason, San Antonio hasn’t been able to find its truly desperate self until its back has been pressed against a paper-thin wall. In the Western Conference Finals, it took until the Spurs were facing elimination, the way it is now, to really bite down and win two consecutive games for the first time all series.

Now, unfortunately, the ante has been upped to three consecutive wins for their survival.

“Everybody thinks, everybody knows, we’re going to do it [win],” Victor Wembanyama said of his team’s locker room mentality. “I feel like we need to isolate that one game and take it one game at a time. I think it would be a mistake to waste our energy on multiple games. It’s one game at a time.”

And there’s been zero reason to doubt their belief. If anything, there may have been too much of it on Wednesday. Call it inappropriate arrogance, cockiness or whatever you will, but that belief in their talent superseded the required levels of discipline and focus in their execution. At this stage, you cannot be whole without a blend of all these elements.

The dribble-penetration and forceful rolls to the rim that set up an endless barrage of great looks from the perimeter and opportunities inside turned to dust in the second half, as the Knicks defense comfortably watched the Spurs settle for one arrhythmic jumper after another. A beautifully constructed first-half offense crumbled, replaced by a pile of bricks.

Slowly but surely, that poor process led to disastrous results as New York found its rhythm. And by the latter stages of the fourth quarter, the edifice San Antonio had built was under attack, and the reinforcements could not defend it.

“Actually … the third quarter had the most disappointing parts in terms of, the lead was big, and (New York’s surge) wasn’t quite hurting us enough. Because now you’re up 22, you’re up 18 … it’s hard to win an NBA game by 30 points for this stretch of the game,” Mitch Johnson said. “There’s natural logic that understands teams make runs. You don’t just boat race somebody in an NBA Finals game at their place.”

In other words, the Spurs got too comfortable. And because of the huge lead, they did not feel enough discomfort during the most pivotal moments of the Knicks’ run.

True desperation means there is no time for relaxation, and if San Antonio isn’t desperate now, it may never be again. Wembanyama told us after his Game 2 miss at the buzzer process doesn’t matter anymore, only results do at this point. But it would probably be wise to pull from what built the 29-point lead in the first place, and every double-digit margin the Spurs have held in every game this series. For all they’ve done wrong, they’ve done a lot right.

“When you watch the games back with the level of detail that I would guess all staffs do, there's so much that starts to happen … on a certain play before you make the shot, or before the runs happen,” Johnson said. “Themes of the game that may not necessarily show themselves in a box score on the surface level, when you start peeling back the layers, you start to understand the ripple effect, good and bad, of what you do or what you did.”

San Antonio has spent a season learning valuable lessons, and Wednesday’s was as difficult as any it’s had to endure. It’s an impossible one to forget, so it has no choice but to gain from the experience.

“It felt like we haven’t skipped any steps because we’ve made almost every mistake we could have possibly done, and we’ve learned from them,” Wembanyama said. “I’m counting on the fact that we’re going to learn before this series is over and apply.”

As the Spurs stare down the barrel of a 3-1 series deficit, and the threat of death to what’s been a remarkable season, I’m reminded of another Victor quote from before the NBA Finals madness even began; from before his team was preparing for its most difficult test to date.

“We can do impossible stuff because we don’t know it’s impossible,” he said, unaware then of the heartache they’d soon encounter.

Now, in San Antonio’s time of desperation, we’re about to find out what is possible.