Johnson Spurs Reach West Finals in First Season Behind 62-20
Mitch Johnson has the johnson spurs in the Western Conference finals in his first season as head coach, and the run has pushed San Antonio back into the league’s top tier after years out of the playoff picture. The Spurs are down 3-2 to the Oklahoma City Thunder after Tuesday’s 127-114 loss in Game 5, with Game 6 now a win-or-go-home test in San Antonio.
Johnson and the Spurs
Johnson, 39, led the Spurs to a 62-20 regular-season record in his first year on the bench. That mark came after he was set to officially become the 19th head coach in franchise history in late April of last year, when he met with Brian Wright, Peter J. Holt, R.C. Buford and Gregg Popovich in Wright’s office.
Popovich’s exit left the franchise with a coach who had not been the public face of the team before taking over, but Johnson has already carried San Antonio to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2017. Brian Wright called him a “phenomenal job” in leading the Spurs back to relevance and title contention, and said, “He’s incredibly poised.”
Thunder Pressure in Game 5
The margin in Game 5 was eight points, but the score only tells part of the story. Johnson said after the loss, “To beat a team of this caliber in their building with the stakes, we’ll need to be a lot better to give yourself a chance.”
That Game 5 defeat dropped San Antonio into a 3-2 series deficit against the host Thunder and left it needing a response at home. It also came in the Spurs’ first win-or-go-home postseason game of the year, a setting they had not faced during the regular season surge that carried them into this round.
Wembanyama, Fox, Castle, Harper
The roster around Johnson has been built for the next phase of the franchise’s climb. Victor Wembanyama is a 7-foot-4 All-Star center, De’Aaron Fox is a two-time NBA All-Star, Stephon Castle is the 2025 NBA Rookie of the Year, and Dylan Harper is on the roster as a heralded rookie.
That mix has helped San Antonio answer a longer drought as well. The Spurs missed the NBA playoffs from 2019-25 after reaching the postseason for 22 consecutive seasons beginning in 1998, so this run is more than one hot month — it is the first real proof that the rebuild has reached a high-stakes stage.
Johnson’s own recognition has matched the team’s rise. He was a finalist for 2026 NBA Coach of the Year, and the Spurs now have to turn the pressure of a 3-2 deficit into one more home result to stay alive in the series.
