San Antonio Spurs coach Mitch Johnson did not mince words about his team’s shortcomings following their loss in the NBA Finals on Saturday.
Johnson admitted after the Spurs’ 94-90 loss in Game 5 that his team simply had not been ready to win a title, and that it showed through how the five games played out.
“We weren’t ready to win an NBA championship. The better team won,” Johnson said. “We did a lot of good things, but we didn’t finish the job.”
"We weren't ready to win an NBA championship… We did a lot of good things and we didn't finish the job. That's what it is."
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) June 14, 2026
– Mitch Johnson on the Spurs’ collapses in the Finals 🗣️
(via @NBA) pic.twitter.com/LadqfdTb49
It’s hard to argue with Johnson’s conclusion. The Spurs led by double-digits at one point in all five games of the series, only to lose four of them. The most prominent of those is the infamous 29-point blown lead in Game 4 that will haunt San Antonio for the foreseeable future.
One can certainly blame Johnson, at least in part, for that lack of readiness. He made some questionable decisions in multiple games, and did not seem to know how to stem the tide when the Knicks made their inevitable fourth quarter runs. By the fourth quarter of Game 5, a Knicks comeback felt almost inevitable, and Johnson still couldn’t lift his team to stop it.
There is little doubt that Johnson will be back next season. Spurs fans will hope he and his team learned some lessons from what happened over the course of the series.
