Spurs got an education down the stretch in NBA Cup title game loss to Knicks

LAS VEGAS AP For San Antonio the NBA Cup final was an tuition A painful development The Spurs let an -point third quarter lead slip away and then a few on Tuesday night falling to the New York Knicks - in the Cup championship championship San Antonio led - with minutes left in the third quarter when Victor Wembanyama who played off the bench once again as he works his way back from a strained left calf connected on a deep -pointer The sum the rest of the way Knicks Spurs San Antonio shot for over those final minutes It got outrebounded - a staggering differential The Knicks outscored the Spurs - in the paint over that stretch too All one-sided numbers and that s how the match got away It s do-or-die I think out there explained Spurs rookie Dylan Harper who led San Antonio with points off the bench You ve seen the level of intensity rise up for us and them Obviously they came out with the win But for us it s not taking anything for granted I think that s the biggest thing When we all go out there we all know that we ve got to play in order to win things like this The Knicks wound up splitting about million in additional bonus money pushing their total to per athlete for winning the Cup The Spurs had to settle such as it is for each I m assuming that we re feeling pretty frustrated because we lost the challenge Spurs coach Mitch Johnson declared I m also feeling after games in I believe that we ve shown several signs that we can be a pretty good organization And we ve also shown that we have a lot of areas of improvement And I think that s where we re living nowadays and hopefully on the morrow We can continue to get a little bit better and minimize several of the things that we need to improve on The Spurs are - Tuesday s loss doesn t factor into the record for this season They ve had four of their key players Wembanyama Harper De Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle together for exactly two games those being the Cup semifinal win over Oklahoma City on Saturday and the Cup final loss to the Knicks The only teams in the Western Conference with better records than the Spurs right now are the Thunder and Denver There s a lot to like even on a night that didn t go San Antonio s way AP NBA https apnews com hub NBA Source