“We Are Gonna Get Tired of It”: Chris Paul Bluntly Assesses Spurs Blowing 19-Point Lead in 114–110 Loss to the Bulls

Chris Paul’s addition to the young San Antonio Spurs squad has been invaluable. The Point God has reshaped the culture within the team, and after lounging at the bottom of the West last year, the Texas side is 18-18, sitting at 10th in the West. Of course, they still have a few things they’ll want to address, and their tendency to blow leads late in a game should be their biggest concern. Their game against the Bulls last night is a clear reflection of it.

The Spurs led the entirety of the contest barring the final 47 seconds, and they ended up losing 114-110 despite having as large as a 19-point lead at one point. CP3, who has seen a lot over his 20-year career, claims this tendency to slack off late game is just something that the Spurs as a team will have to overcome, and spoke about how the responsibility to turn these games into wins start from him as the veteran presence on the team.

“Sooner or later, we gonna get tired of it. I gotta go back and look at it, figure out what I could have done better, probably got us better shots, but it’s tough.”

Acknowledging NBA is at the end of the day a business, Paul emphasized on the importance of immediate action, claiming that there’s no guarantee the roster will remain the same next season too. He certainly knows more about it than anyone else on the Spurs roster. He’s played for 7 teams after all.

“There’s no time like the present,” he said. “Everybody is not guaranteed to be here next year.”

And it’s not just Paul who knows the importance of converting these large leads to wins. Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs’ superstar center, also spoke on last night’s loss, with the sort of maturity we’ve come to expect from the Frenchman.

Wemby says the San Antonio Spurs “don’t deserve more wins”

With 17 turnovers on the night, the Spurs squandered what was a glorious chance to jump to 8th spot in the West. The combination of complacent ball movement, lazy defense, and an apparent lack of effort allowed the Bulls to pull off an unlikely win.

After the game, Wemby, who had a game-high 5 turnovers, spoke to the media about how the Spurs got what they deserved in the end, based on their lack of decisive play. “I don’t think there was one area where we were really, really bad. I mean, of course, we had turnovers but it was mix of things,” the sophomore center said after the loss in Chicago. “But that should be compensated by the effort, you know. Effort and the attention to details.”

He also spoke about how the term “deserve more wins” was a misleading stat. He claimed that the Spurs are where they are because of their own efforts, be it in good performances or bad ones.

With a mentality that’s far beyond his years, he added, “I mean, yeah it’s very frustrating. For sure, right now we should have more wins, but we don’t deserve more wins, you know, because this is where we’re at right now. This is our level, you know, our maturity. And this one is a tough one, for sure. But apparently, we need those to grow.”

Of course, at 18-18, the Spurs aren’t fully out of contention for the playoffs, and barring freak injuries, they should make the play-in tournament with relative ease. But no team wants to barely scrape by, and with mentality monsters like Chris Paul and Wembanyama leading them, the Spurs will want to solidify their place as a threat in the West as soon as possible.