How the heck did the SPURS have the biggest Game 7 brain fart?

The Spurs were on the verge of completing an unlikely 13-point comeback in Game 7 against the Nuggets on Saturday, but one huge blunder on the defensive end left them without a shot on the final possession of the game. Ultimately, this mistake pushed them out the playoffs.

San Antonio trailed, 90-86, with 26 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Basic mathematics says this is a two-possession game. The Spurs needed to intentionally foul, send the Nuggets to the foul line and extend the game if they wanted a chance at a comeback.

But despite Gregg Popovich signaling for his team to foul, the did not. The Spurs let Jamal Murray dribble the clock down to a second, then hoist a three up at the buzzer. San Antonio recovered the rebound with fewer than three seconds left on the game clock. The Spurs never even got a shot up at the end of the game.

It was as if they accepted their fate before the game ended.

San Antonio is normally praised as being one of the best-coached teams in the NBA, and deservedly so: Popovich has long been revered as one of the best minds in all of basketball. But this defensive brain fart was inexcusable. This was J.R. Smith forgetting how much time was on the shot clock, all over again. Except this time, it wasn’t a single player. It was an entire Spurs team that should have realized there wasn’t enough time on the clock to get the ball back.

Even after they got the ball back, they would have needed to convert on a four-point play. It wasn’t happening. They should have fouled immediately with 26 seconds still left on the clock.

This one will sting the Spurs for awhile. They had a chance to extend the game at the free throw line. Instead, they never even got another possession. San Antonio was eliminated, and they didn’t do themselves any favors on the way out.