'We Should Never Lose a Game Like That': How Spurs Collapse Led to Worst Loss This Season

As San Antonio approaches its final true home game of the season, it will look to earn a win in response to the less-than-pretty road stretch it just endured. And the Spurs' loss to the Celtics served as the latest reminder of how coach Gregg Popovich's squad can improve.

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It's not often that a team can say it would have won an NBA game without the impact of one of its star players — especially with another one of its stars sidelined. 

But the Boston Celtics can. 

In their most recent outing against the San Antonio Spurs at home, the Celtics put on an offensive showing to remember, tallying 137 points in their fifth-highest point total of the season to inch closer to the No. 1 overall seed in the Eastern Conference. 

Veteran shooting guard Jaylen Brown registered 41 points for his third 40-plus point game of the season, and was one basket short of tying his season-high points as he filled in for the injured Jayson Tatum Sunday. 

To make matters worse, if Brown had not played at all, the Spurs still would have come up three points short.

It was their worst loss of the season. 

"[That loss] was a tough one," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said postgame. "The Celtics played great. Jaylen was super. We played well for about a quarter, but after that, I thought we just gave in." 

Gave in was an understatement for the Spurs, however. 

At the end of the first quarter, San Antonio held a two-point lead, and the matchup between both teams appeared to be competitive. 

It was looking to stay that way until midway through the second quarter, when the Celtics took back the lead off of running layup from point guard Derrick White.

After a few more minutes of back-and-forth, the Celtics pulled away and only added to their lead from there, and by the end of the full 48 minutes, the Spurs had been outscored, out-rebounded, out-assisted and even out-blocked by Boston. 

Spurs big-man Zach Collins led the scoring for San Antonio in the absence of Keldon Johnson — tallying 21 by the end of the night — and shared a sentiment similar to coach Gregg Popovich on the loss. 

"They caught fire and we couldn't recover," Collins said. "I think we tried to get back into it. Maybe we did give in — we definitely have to watch the film. When you lose by 40, there's probably a lot of things that went wrong. We should never lose a game like that." 

Besides Brown, the Celtics also relied heavily on guard-duo Malcolm Brogdon and White, who tallied 20 and 19 points, respectively.

Brogdon dished out nine assists, and was the closest Celtic (besides Brown) to a double-double, followed closely by center Robert Williams III and White, who both helped Boston's board numbers during Boston's winning effort.

But if the offensive onslaught wasn't enough for the Spurs, they also fell victim to a defensive masterclass put on by the Celtics, who recorded 11 total blocks and four steals — making down-low scoring difficult.

So with the paint well guarded by the Celtics, the Spurs found themselves needing to look to another aspect of their offense: the 3-pointer. 

Behind-the-arc shooting has not been kind to the young team, however, who entered the game ranked in the bottom five of teams in the league in 3-point percentage and worst in the league in offensive efficiency rating.

Their numbers did not improve much, either, as the Spurs shot only 22 percent from deep compared to the Celtics' near 40 percent. 

"I was definitely trying to be aggressive," Collins said. "But they switched a lot. I'll have to look at what I could do better against guards. Maybe I rushed a few of [my] shots, or maybe I was getting doubled and should have kicked [the ball] out more ... I'm not sure."

Collins shed some light on the blowout loss as well, sharing what he felt a big part of the Celtics' success has been this season, which he says is similar for the Milwaukee Bucks team that beat the Spurs just two games ago.

"Both teams have been together for awhile," Collins said. "That's important. They have that chemistry." 

"You can stack a bunch of talent on a team," he added. "But if you haven't had some core guys there for a while, it makes it tough to win games. They have both the talent and the culture ... so they've been able to build something." 

While that is more than what can be said about the current Spurs roster — the longest tenured player being Johnson, who has been with San Antonio for only three years – Popovich and company have made clear that the team is rebuilding, which includes building experience and chemistry. 

And with another young talent on the way via the NBA draft, San Antonio is set to continue to build and regain its contending status, though losing games is something that Collins says is part of the growth process. 

"Failure and experience are the best teachers," he said. "We just have to learn from it."

Next for the Spurs will be their final true home game of the season against the Utah Jazz, in what may potentially be Popovich's final home game of his career. 

There, San Antonio will look to regroup and take with them a few lessons from their worst loss of the season. 

Tipoff from AT&T Center is set for 7:00 p.m. Wednesday.

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