How Spurs’ youth and inexperience finally caught up to them at the worst time

Hard to blame someone if they came away from the Game 4 collapse in the NBA Finals thinking that the stage was a tad too big for the San Antonio Spurs. After all, this season wasn’t supposed to wind up here. Not by a long shot.

But, a team whose best player is 22 years old, whose best two-way perimeter player is 21 and who depends heavily on a 20-year-old rookie kept defying the odds.

When the Spurs started the season with a franchise best 5-0 record, it was fool’s gold considering they hadn’t played any contenders. Instead, they raced out to a 17-7 mark that included an NBA Cup quarterfinal victory at the Los Angeles Lakers.

When they beat the defending champion 24-1 Oklahoma City Thunder in mid-December, it was merely a good night by a talented young group. Didn’t matter that in came in the Cup semifinal on a neutral site.

Whey they knocked off OKC for a third time in 13 days by Christmas, all fingers pointed ahead. Wait until a postseason match-up — if it even happens — was the consensus.

As the Spurs went through a perfect February on their way to 62 wins, the reality of the postseason would get them, whether in the first round as they initially tasted the playoffs or in the second round against an experienced opponent or in the conference finals vs. the champs.

When they fell behind 2-1 to the Thunder in the WCF, it was just a matter of time before the No. 1 seed would put them away. When they went down 3-2, Oklahoma City would find that championship fortitude to close them out. And forget about Game 7. In OKC? No chance.

At every make or break point this season, San Antonio made it.

When these #Spurs set a team record w/a 5-0 start, they hadn’t played anyone

When they beat OKC 3x in 13 days, it was wait ‘til it matters

As they won 60, inexperience would eventually get them

When they went 7, the champs would prevail

Betting against them hasn’t worked well

— Hector Ledesma (@HectorLedesmaTV) May 31, 2026

Then came the NBA Finals.

Now, it’s important to note that the series isn’t over.

What may be over, though, is the notion that their lack of experience and loads of youth won’t prove a determining factor.

In addition to their historic 29-point breakdown in Game 4, the Spurs have blown double-digit leads every game in these Finals.

Mind you, they’re not far removed from eliminating a Minnesota Timberwolves squad vying for a third-straight trip to the conference finals with a blowout on the road. From that mature win on, the bigger the stakes, the better San Antonio performed through the West playoffs.

Why then, would a team that routed the defending champions when their backs were to the wall in a Game 6, commit such self-inflicted wounds in a Game 2 vs. the New York Knicks?

How could a team that executed so well in a crucial fourth quarter on the way to a monumental Game 7 victory at the champs fold so dramatically in a Game 4 against a squad that doesn’t match its top end roster talent?

The difference? And, perhaps, the answer…

The NBA Finals.

Throughout the season, no moment seemed too large for these Spurs. And maybe this series won’t either.

But after Game 4, their youth and inexperience have met their match in the form of basketball’s biggest stage.

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