Last night, against the Houston Rockets, the San Antonio Spurs dropped their sixth straight game, losing in overtime.  While the first five losses weren’t really anything to worry about considering the injuries and the opponents (the first four had all or some of the Spurs’ big three sitting out, the fifth loss was to the Boston Celtics), this one was a little more worrisome.

With the Lakers breathing down the Spurs’ neck for the first seed and while playing a non-playoff team, the Spurs were really going for the win, but they were unable to get it due to a number (nine to be exact) of really bad mistakes made in the final minute of the fourth quarter and throughout overtime.  Mistakes that you don’t really see Gregg Popovich coached teams make:

Mistake 1: Turnover In The Backcourt

Up by three points with 1 minute left in the game, the Spurs play fantastic defense, forcing the Rockets into a tough shot that is missed.  After securing the rebound, the Spurs could have realistically ran the clock all the way down to 30 seconds looking to get a basket and turn it into a two possession game.  The Spurs never get that chance because of some sloppy play.  Manu Ginobili throws a pass to Tony Parker without really looking.  This forces Paker to tap the ball to Tim Duncan just to avoid a turnover. Duncan quickly gets the ball to George Hill who now has to rush the ball up the court to avoid an eight second violation.  As soon as Hill crosses the half court line, he is trapped, the ball gets deflected, and it leads to a turnover.  Once that results directly into a fast break opportunity for the Rockets.  This turnover all comes down to the lazy pass thrown by Ginobili.  If he hangs onto the basketball and brings it up himself, a turnover probably doesn’t take place.

Mistake 2: Unnecessary Switch

The Spurs were able to build their lead back to two points with 18.4 seconds left as Tim Duncan misses his second foul shot.  Eventually, after coming off of two separate ball screens, Kyle Lowry was able to knock down an open jumper right at the foul line.  The missed free throw wasn’t the mistake, no the mistake was made when the Spurs switched a screen that really didn’t need to be switched:

As Lowry brings the basketball up after the missed free throw, he gets a screen from Chuck Hayes.  It is a weak screen though, and Parker is able to fight over it and stay in front of Lowry.

Because Parker is able to stay in front of Lowry, he forces him to take the basketball all of the way to the opposite wing.  Because this happens, Luis Scola comes up and sets a second screen for Lowry.

Again, it is another weak screen, but this time, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker feel that it is necessary to switch the screen.

With Parker no longer in front of Lowry, Lowry is able to get to his spot.  Tim Duncan isn’t the quickest player, so now he is compensating to prevent penetration, which allows Lowry to get off a clean jumper off of a step back move.

Mistake 3: Don’t Get A Shot Off

With 3.9 seconds left in the 4th quarter, the Spurs had the ball with the game tied.  The Spurs ran a set where Duncan flashed to the top of the key and got the basketball.  Once Duncan got the basketball, Ginobili flashes from the baseline to the wing, getting the ball.  By the time Ginobili has the basketball, there is 2.0 seconds left.  Ginobili had to know that time was running out, yet he tries to get all of the way to the rim, but runs out of time.

Mistake 4: Poor Passing/Bad Shot

With the game tied in overtime, the Spurs were trying to get back into their standard offense, the pick and roll with shooters in the corner.  Here, Ginobili comes off of the McDyess screen and looks to get the ball to the corner.  One problem, Parker, who was set up in the corner, started drifting towards the wing.  So while Parker was open initially, the bad pass allows the defense to recover.  Eventually, after another bad pass from Parker to Ginobili, Ginobili is forced into a tough jumper that he misses.

Mistake 5: Goes Under Handoff

With around two minutes left, the Spurs were able to gain a two point lead.  With the basketball, the Rockets brought the ball down the court and ran one of their go to sets (in fact, we will see this later in the post), an off ball staggered that turned into a handoff for Kevin Martin.  Martin is able to knock down an open three, and the mistake is made when George Hill decides to go under the handoff from Scola.

The set starts with Lowry getting the basketball to Luis Scola on the elbow.  After making the pass, he and Chuck Hayes head towards Kevin Martin.

Lowry and Hayes set a staggered screen off of the basketball for Martin.  Initially, Hill is playing good defense, staying attached to Martin’s body and trailing him through the screens.

However, Martin isn’t coming off of these screens looking for a spot up shot.  Instead, he continues off of the screen where he gets a dribble handoff from Scola.

This is where the breakdown takes place.  Instead of continuing to trail Martin and chasing him off of the three point line, George Hill goes under Scola.

This allows Martin to get the ball, set up, and pull the three point shot without a hand in his face, knocking it down and giving the Rockets a 1 point lead.

Mistake 6: Manu’s Charge

In their next possession after Martin’s three point shot, the Spurs again try to get into their pick and roll offense with Ginobili as the ball handler.  Manu splits the hedge, but instead of pulling up for a nice jumper, he takes an extra step looking for the runner.  That extra step costs Ginobili as he plows into Scola, getting called for the offensive foul.

Mistake 7: No Movement

The Spurs were able to get another stop, and trailing by one point they decide to go to something else on the offensive end, a post up to Manu Ginobili.  However, they were unable to get the ball into the post because there was help from the weakside.  There was help from the weakside because there was a lack of movement.  You can see that Matt Bonner wants to set a pindown screen for George Hill, but Hill never uses it.  If he does, then maybe Chuck Hayes would have to worry about that instead of helping out on Ginobili’s post up.  That doesn’t happen and Ginobili is forced to release his post up and get to the wing, where he makes the catch and steps out of bounds.

Mistake 8: McDyess Leaves His Feet

Up by one point, the Rockets were looking for the dagger, running the play that got Kevin Martin a wide open three point shot.  This time, George Hill goes over the handoff, but for some reason McDyess switches it.  With a big on him, Martin is able to pump fake, get McDyess in the air, drawing the foul, and getting two points.

Mistake 9: No Foul

Now down by three points, the Spurs end up getting a very good look, but the ball doesn’t go in.  So with a three second differential between the shot clock and the game clock and a three point deficit, coach Popovich is looking for his team to foul.  The problem is the foul comes entirely too late, causing Popovich to spike his clipboard in anger.

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In the grand scheme of things, this is just one loss.  They are still ahead of the Lakers, and they have a head to head matchup with them that will probably determine the first seed.  The thing that is starting to worry me is the Spurs are making mistakes that aren’t like them.  This isn’t the first time, they had a similar game against the Trailblazers just last week, where 3 turnovers in 15 or so seconds turned a win into a loss.  It could be a team bored with the regular season, but if these type of mistakes carry into the postseason, the Spurs could be in a lot of trouble.