Mitch Johnson is getting real after back-to-back losses to San Antonio

The The San Antonio Spurs have dropped two games in a row teams near the bottom or just outside the NBA playoff picture. While that has been the norm over the last few years, including the last two with Victor Vembanyama, it has been an eye-opening experience for a youth-dominated Silver and Black core. Head coach Mitch Johnson sees part of the problem.

“The season started in October and runs through the spring. You have to go to work every day, you have to have the right attitude, and you have to do everything that day requires,” said the first-year Spurs bench boss.

“And we haven’t been as good as we should have been the last few days.”

Losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Utah Jazz have some scratching their heads, given the San Antonio had three wins in 12 days against who were thought to be the undefeated defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

“I think time will tell. It’s easy to try to answer that right now,” Johnson said when asked if the failures teach his guys a lesson in how to deal with success.

Mitch Johnson describes Spurs’ sudden struggles

The Spurs didn’t shoot well in a 113-101 loss to the Cavs. They went 39% from the field and 23% from 3-point range.

“There was an unnecessary sense of desperation at times, and I think there’s probably a few different sources for that,” Johnson continued. “Some of it is motivation, some of it is trying to make plays, some of it is trying to be aggressive. Some of it is trying to extend a lead or cut a lead where you can’t get six points.”

“I thought it looked like we had a lot of anxiety on offense. We weren’t in rhythm most of the night.”

Although San Antonio led most of the way – Cleveland didn’t shoot much better at 43% and 31% from beyond the arc – they were never able to build much of a lead. Call it a sluggish effort or a clumsy attack, though Johnson has his own thoughts.

“I think on the surface, of course, there’s a certain level of real variables that you could point to in terms of having the added visibility, the level of excitement in the games around the Cup and Christmas and that sort of thing. But we’ve got a job to do,” Johnson said.

“Coach said that… We’re not as good as everyone said we were after those games before. And we’re not as bad as we’ve shown these last two games.”

– He asked Wemby if these were the last 2 #Spurs L for Cavs & Jazz are part of the growing pains that come with the competition#PorVida #GoSpursGo pic.twitter.com/Sk43JKuP5k

— Hector Ledesma (@HectorLedesmaTV) December 30, 2025

The Spurs went into these last few games with two wins in three days against the Thunder and they did officially winners of eight in a row because the league does not count the NBA Cup final as a result that enters the scoreboard. And so a team centered around 21-year-old Vembanyama, flanked by 21-year-old Stephon Castle and 19-year-old Dylan Harper, has been stunned by their last two performances.

“Cleveland gets a tremendous amount of credit for their game plan, their execution, their defense in general,” Johnson said of the second of two straight losses involving the Jazz, who are ninth in the Western Conference.

The Cavaliers are hovering in eighth place in the East. Both are far from a A Spurs unit that ranks second in the Westeven if it hasn’t turned out that way in the last few days.