The San Antonio Spurs are fighting for their spot in the NBA playoffs as the season winds down. They are neck-and-neck with the Los Angeles Lakers for the final play-in tournament. Thanks to an exasperating Spurs loss, the Lakers now have a leg up in the race.

Keldon Johnson was super close to securing a huge win for the Spurs on a last-second layup against the Memphis Grizzlies. On a play that could have earned him a trip to the free-throw line, he instead came up short. The Lakers now lead them by half a game in the standings. It's not an insurmountable lead by any means but it could be the difference that causes San Antonio to be eliminated.

Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich shrugged off the loss, insisting that the players should instead regroup and focus on the next game rather than dwell on the loss. He said that the loss was a good growing experience.

There is certainly some extra pressure to perform well this season, which could very likely be Popovich's last as an NBA head coach. The Spurs have missed the playoffs in each of the past two seasons, which are the only two times that has happened in every full season that Pop has coached.

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San Antonio has a solid future ahead of it behind All-Star Dejounte Murray and a solid supporting cast featuring Johnson, Jakob Poeltl and Devin Vassell. For this season, though, the pressure is on to get Popovich close to the playoffs one last time.