Mitch Johnson pays the price after ignoring Charles Barkley’s halftime warning in Spurs Game 5 collapse originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The San Antonio Spurs’ postseason run came to an end on Saturday after their Game 5 defeat to the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals. The loss was particularly painful considering San Antonio controlled the game for much of the night and carried a lead into the fourth quarter. However, the Knicks erased the deficit and completed a stunning 16-point comeback to secure a 94-90 victory.
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While New York deserves credit for its resilience, much of the postgame discussion centered around Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson’s decisions. With San Antonio holding an advantage at halftime, former NBA star and current analyst Charles Barkley publicly questioned Johnson’s rotation choices and urged him to lean more heavily on the team’s young talent, particularly Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle, instead of De’Aaron Fox.
“I hate to say this: (Mitch) gotta go with Castle and Harper. He got to take Fox out of the game…if you’re coach Johnson you can’t be worrying about people’s feelings out here,” Barkley said.
Despite the criticism and the momentum generated by the younger players, Johnson once again put his faith in Fox to guide the offense. That decision ultimately failed to produce the desired outcome. Fox struggled throughout the game, finishing with just seven points and five assists while shooting 3-for-15 from the field and 1-for-8 from beyond the arc.
Johnson’s handling of the rotation also appeared to create frustration within the locker room. During the postgame press conference, Devin Vassell revealed that Harper had been unhappy with his playing time at certain points during the season.
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Meanwhile, Harper delivered another standout performance in San Antonio’s season-ending game. The rookie finished with 25 points, five rebounds, and four assists while shooting 10-for-19 from the floor and 2-for-4 from three-point range.
Even with Harper producing at an elite level, Johnson largely stuck with the same blueprint that had already drawn criticism following Game 4. In the end, the strategy once again failed to deliver, and the Spurs’ long-awaited pursuit of their first championship since 1999 came to a disappointing conclusion.
