BREAKING NEWS: Spurs’ head coach Gregg Popovich drops honest assessment on Raptors after Spurs’ collapse

After taking a 15-point lead into the fourth quarter of their Monday night game against the Toronto Raptors, the San Antonio Spurs appeared to be on their way to their fourth win of the season. However, some of the Spurs’ ghosts from the past returned to haunt them. Similar to their Thursday night game against the Phoenix Suns, Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs blew a 20-point lead, but this time they choked the game away in a 123-116 overtime loss to the Raptors.

In the end, the Raptors outgunned the Spurs in the fourth quarter, making seven three-pointers, three of which came from the much-improved Scottie Barnes, as they stormed back from a huge deficit. The Raptors were also able to hold the Spurs to just one three-pointer over the final 17 minutes of the game, a crucial mathematical deficit that Wembanyama and company were unable to compensate for in other areas.

After the game, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich praised the Raptors for shutting down defensively while making shots from beyond the arc, calling the three-pointer “the great equalizer.”

“They went for three-pointers and hit 12 in the second half.” “They knocked them down, and we didn’t,” Popovich told reporters after the game, according to Project Spurs’ Paul Garcia. “We didn’t have as many points down the stretch.” We had a little more trouble with them because of their length, aggressiveness, and ability to get into passing lanes.”

Of all, tenacity and swarming defense have been engrained in the Raptors’ DNA for years, so Gregg Popovich and the Spurs weren’t unprepared for it when the game began. But, with the Spurs group, led by Victor Wembanyama, still lacking in experience, clinching the game would be difficult — and it was.

“It’s a young team up against an experienced team.” With their length and quickness, [Toronto] is like the biggest tiny team you can imagine,” Popovich continued.

At the end of the day, considering how quickly this Spurs core appears to learn from their mistakes, expect them to be a more tenacious squad when it comes to defending leads in the future.