Why Spurs Must Honor 'Basketball Gods' to Meet Their New Expectations

The San Antonio Spurs came home from a win in Oklahoma City on Christmas Day with stockings full of praise, but didn't give themselves long to enjoy what they got for being good this year.

They went back to school immediately and failed back-to-back tests in San Antonio, losing by double digits in subjects that seem much easier than meteorology, such as jazz and equestrian. It's tempting to look at the box scores of these games, see that San Antonio shot just 23 percent from 3 in each contest, and chalk it up to some bad luck with the ball not bouncing their way.

Gregg Popovich probably doesn't see it that way. He made clear over the course of his coaching career that luck on the court is mainly a reflection of one's willingness to play the game the right way. He had a term for it, one that clearly still carries weight for his successor and the organization as a whole.

"The guy who used to coach here used the term 'Basketball Gods.' We didn't obey them tonight," Mitch Johnson said after his Spurs fell to the 11-19 Utah Jazz 127-114.

"Guy who used to coach here used the term 'Basketball Gods.' We didn't obey em tonight."

-Mitch Johnson
— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) December 28, 2025

De'Aaron Fox missed the game with adductor tightness and San Antonio's offense went 10-44 from deep while Utah hit 17-37. It would be easy to write off as a simple shooting variance loss without your most experienced point guard, but 114 points would have been enough to win in each of San Antonio's previous six victories.

Win or lose, Johnson is a process-oriented leader. He's less concerned about those shooting percentages and more focused on whether his guys were able to generate good shots while forcing the opponent into bad ones.

"Pretty disappointed in quite a few things, the game plan execution in terms of just not being connected on very simple things that we do every game that weren't necessarily pertinent to just the Utah Jazz, but the Utah Jazz took advantage of that and crushed us when we made mistakes," Johnson said candidly.

The Jazz dominated the second quarter 38-20 on the scoreboard, but Johnson said the entire first half was about as bad at the process level.

"I think it got away from us in the first quarter too," Johnson said. "I mean, we gave up 32 points, and they made shots that felt differently because we were making shots. Our offense did not sustain the second quarter, and so that's what made it felt a lot worse, but lack of communication. If I'm not doing something that my teammates expecting, or vice versa, it's hard to be connected."

Dec 27, 2025; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs coach Mitch Johnson signals to players during the first half against the Utah Jazz at Frost Bank Center. | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

According to the NBA's tracking data, 40 of the 44 3-point attempts were either open or wide open looks with no defender within four feet. But again, the devil is in the details.

"I thought we missed some really good shots," Johnson said. "I thought we were not making early passes, and I think that probably would have created some better shot quality... It felt like even some of our passes were also off time and off target. And I think we just were not anticipating making passes as early and as often as we have been recently."

"You can feel that at times where you may create an advantage, but (not) if you don't get off it right when the advantage is available and you don't deliver a pass where your teammate can do something with it directly, right away," Johnson continued. "They did a great job with their multiple efforts and then recovering and making us play through resistance."

Johnson also tried to identify the root cause of a rushed mindset that led to sloppy execution.

"It felt like we chased the game a little bit in terms of some self centered play, not selfishness, but just trying to make whether it's a hero play or try to catch up the score quickly instead of just play the game," Johnson said.

Unfortunately for the Spurs, pretty much all of those troubles carried over to the next game, a 113-101 loss to the 18-16 Cleveland Cavaliers.

Again San Antonio shot 23% from 3, and again a majority of those shots were open. Again poor communication led to blown coverages defensively and turnovers on the other end. Again Johnson saw his team speed themselves up, and not in the way he wants to see.

"It looked like we had an extreme amount of anxiety on offense, and so we were not in rhythm for most of the night," Johnson said. "Again, Cleveland gets an immense amount of credit for their game plan, their execution, their defense in general, it felt like an unnecessary feeling of desperation at times tonight. And I think there's probably a few different sources of that."

Dec 29, 2025; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs guard Dylan Harper (2) dribbles against Cleveland Cavaliers guard Craig Porter Jr. (9) in the second half at Frost Bank Center. | Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images

"Some of it is motivation. Some is trying to make a play. Some is trying to be aggressive. Some of it's trying to extend a lead or cut a lead where you can't get six-point plays, you just need to let the play, the game, call upon what's appropriate at the time and let the basketball..." Johnson paused as he put the Basketball Gods idea into his own words. "Use its energy for good."

People who believe in traditional sentient basketball dieties and those who have a more general, spiritual view of the basketball universe and the life force therein will likely agree that the Frost Bank Center should be saged before the next contest. Whether that helps the Spurs make their shots or not, they have to focus on what they can control.

"I think that's something that we have to understand, that (missing shots) can't dictate the process or the approach of what's going to go into trying to produce the outcomes," Johnson said. "Stuff that goes in prior to the outcome has to be what we value, and then typically, if you do that consistently, over time you get the outcomes that you like, or more times than not."

The wins over the Thunder made it hard to believe how young this Spurs team is, and the two-game skid that followed made it very easy. Wins and losses aside, it sounds like the values of the previous and current head coach are being absorbed.

San Antonio's young superstar seems to have a pretty good handle on what needs to improve.

"Trust the process, not skipping steps, and being more calm... I always want to do the right thing of course, but it's just sometimes we want to skip steps," Victor Wembanyama said. "We have to control more than we have to do the incredible things."

That calm and control has been present for the Spurs more than anyone could have reasonably hoped for this year, these last two losses notwithstanding. Wemby quoted his coach's thoughts from the game before about keeping an even keel despite the ups and downs of the NBA.

"We're not as good as everybody said we were after this last however many games... and we're not as bad as we showed this last two games. But we have to be able to handle that," Wembanyama said. "We do everything to win... everybody is locked in at practice, at scout, but we can't waste some efforts with these things we can control."

"As the players we didn't come into the game doing the things that got us to the place where we at, and that's what happens when you don't do that," Keldon Johnson said after the loss to the Jazz.

Johnson the player seems to share a mindset with Johnson the coach about the process meaning more than makes and misses or wins and losses. When asked about that game as a rare occasion where the Spurs dropped the ball, Keldon admitted that winning has been a powerful deodorant at times.

"We're going to tighten some things up, but we all know as a group that tonight was unacceptable," Johnson said. "Hats off to them, they played a good game, their players hit shots, but I do not feel like we played to our standard, and we plan on getting back to that."

Dec 29, 2025; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson (3) and Cleveland Cavaliers guard Jaylon Tyson (20) battle for position in the first half at Frost Bank Center. | Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images

Keldon Johnson's entire NBA career has existed within the confines of San Antonio's six-year playoff drought. This is the first time his Spurs have ever been considered a contender for anything more than a play-in spot, and they've now set an expectation that they will execute an aggressive style of play at an elite level.

It may seem that this success happened overnight, but Keldon Johnson is better qualified than anyone to debunk that. The player who has been in San Antonio the longest raised another bit of Popovich-ian wisdom. It makes sense that Jacob Riis' stonecutter quote resonates with him. He has hammered away for longer than anybody with a steady rhythm and a big smile, despite years without so much as a crack.

3-0 against the Thunder and the entire month of December to that point felt like splitting that stone in two and knowing it was not the last blow that did it, but all that came before. The thing about splitting that stone is that it clears the way for a new stone, one that is stronger and heavier because it bears the weight of expectations.

The Spurs have established themselves as one of the league's top teams and a threat to anyone, so every loss will feel disappointing. Johnson the player called losing the worst feeling in the world. Like Johnson the coach, he understands that the best way to improve the result is to focus on the process.

"We know we're not the perfect team, but we know we strive and we have standards. We got to uphold those standards in order for us to get to where we want to be at this season," Keldon Johnson said. "So it's definitely humbling. But like I said before, I have the utmost faith and my teammates, my brothers. I feel like we're going get back at it tomorrow, keep pounding the rock, keep trusting each other."

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