San Antonio Spurs: 3 takeaways from a heartbreaking loss to the Lakers

A young San Antonio Spurs squad lost their cool

Throughout the game, the Spurs stuck to their gameplan and held a high-scoring Lakers team to only being able to score under 100 points with five minutes left to play.

However, with just a few minutes left in the fourth quarter, the young Spurs roster began to fall apart. In the last five minutes of the game, San Antonio shot just 22.7 percent from the field and missed every one of the four 3-point shots that they took. In the final three minutes, with the two teams tied at 100, only one player (Rudy Gay) hit a shot for the Spurs, and the rest of the squad missed their five other shots. By comparison, the Lakers shot 50 percent from the field, 50 percent from 3-point range, and went 2-2 from the free throw line.

The final few minutes were a perfect example of what could hurt this Spurs team in the long run. Of the six players who San Antonio used during the final three minutes, three of them had three years of experience or less. Of the five that Los Angeles used in the same time frame, just one (Kyle Kuzma) had three years of experience or less.

Youth is going the hurt San Antonio in the long run. With so many players that the team relies on regularly having such little experience is going to be a really tough obstacle to overcome. There are so few players on this team who have experience in high-pressure situations, and this game was the first piece of evidence to that fact.

If San Antonio can figure out how to teach their young players to perform in close games, they could go far in a stacked Western Conference. If they’re not able to do that, then San Antonio will need to continue their rebuilding process.