The San Antonio Spurs, thanks in large part to the emergence of ballyhooed youngster Victor Wembanyama, appear to be on a steep upward trend. Coming off two consecutive spirited victories against the Phoenix Suns, the Spurs, once again, found themselves in a position of victory on Sunday night against the Toronto Raptors, leading by as many as 22 points and looking like they're well on their way to achieving their fourth win of the season.

Alas, like Wembanyama said in the past, there is no such thing as a safe lead in the NBA given how explosive offenses can be these days. With that said, the Raptors came roaring back from that big of a deficit and forced overtime on an OG Anunoby putback off a missed rebound from the talented Spurs rookie.

In the end, it was the more veteran Raptors squad that took home the victory, 123-116, handing the Spurs their third loss of the season in excruciating fashion. Nevertheless, given how inexperienced the Spurs squad is at the moment, these growing pains may be inevitable, as this can only serve to further cement in Victor Wembanyama and company's brains the words of head coach Gregg Popovich on how to protect leads.

“[Coach Popovich] often says it's important to play for the whole 48 minutes and even relaxing a couple seconds is too much,” Wembanyama told reporters, per Paul Garcia of Project Spurs.

That will, indeed, be a crucial lesson for these young Spurs to internalize, as sooner rather than later, thanks to Victor Wembanyama's rapid development into one of the most impactful stars in the NBA, they will be in positions where they must protect huge leads.

Losing a game in which they led 20-plus is a surefire way to ingrain in their minds what they must do the next time they're in a similar circumstance; after all, learning from mistakes is a painful yet necessary experience that the Spurs didn't get when they escaped Thursday night with a win against the Suns despite blowing a huge lead.

For now, the Spurs won't have much time to lick their wounds as they'll be facing the Indiana Pacers tomorrow night at 8:00 PM E.T.