The San Antonio Spurs blew a 16-point lead to the Houston Rockets, cementing them as one of the worst finishing teams in the league despite their solid record this season.
The San Antonio Spurs lost to the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night, 111-106. Led by 27 points from Julian Champagnie, his 3-point barrage wasn't enough to keep the Spurs afloat, as they blew a 16-point second-half lead to the Rockets.
The loss cements the Spurs as a poor finishing team. In recent contests--both wins and losses--the Spurs have held multiple double-digit leads before letting them slip away. For a team with the second-best record in the West and playoff hopes, their inability to close games out should give fans real reason for concern.
After the game, the Spurs, especially Victor Wembanyama, didn't hold back.
Wemby Sounds Off After Loss#
Losing sucks. Losing to an in-state rival is even worse, and losing to an in-state rival after leading by as many as 16 points is hard to top.
Wembanyama didn't have the best game, scoring only 14 points while missing all seven of his 3-pointers. He's well aware of the fact that his team needed him to be better, and he didn't shirk responsibility, although it was a team loss.
"Same as usual," he summed up after the game. "Blowing a 15-plus point lead. The good thing is, like, we're all onto the problem. We're all putting our minds into it. But we're conscious it is a problem."
Not to lambast Wemby, but everyone is aware that the blown leads are a problem. Being "conscious" about it isn't really a solution. The Spurs need to address the root cause: poor play at the end of games.
"We missed some open shots," offered Mitch Johnson. "We weren't strong, creating leads, catches, passes, mental stuff in terms of sharpness on play execution. It was a variety of things all across the board."
The question, at this point, shouldn't be "what went wrong," it should be "this has gone wrong several times this season, how will it be fixed?"
Of course, we (the media) don't point out when the Spurs hold onto a lead, as they did in their most recent win over the Utah Jazz, although that outcome was expected. Good teams beat bad teams, usually. It's against other solid teams where the Spurs have struggled as of late. Heading into the midpoint of the season, it's a major area for concern.