The Packers And Spurs Have A Lot In Common — And That’s Not A Good Thing

Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur is trying to figure out how to get his team to finish games better in 2026 than they did in 2025.

Getty ImagesMatt LaFleur and De’Aaron Fox must be kindred spirits.

>The Green Bay Packers and San Antonio Spurs are seemingly cut from the same cloth.

>As the great Jerry Seinfeld would say, both teams know how to TAKE a lead. They just don't know how to HOLD a lead.

>For the Spurs, who trail the New York Knicks, 3-1, in the NBA Finals, it seems likely to cost them a championship.

>For the Packers, it derailed their 2025 season.

>So as Green Bay labored away during its offseason program that ended Thursday, the No. 1 focus was finding a way to finish games.

>“The finish aspect of the team is really what we've been harping on,” Green Bay center Sean Rhyan said. “Because, man, everyone can start fast and come out hot as can be, but it's being able to sustain it and being consistent throughout the game and finishing where we started.”

>Packers safety Xavier McKinney agreed.

>“I think there might have been a couple of times last year where we felt like the game was kind of good,” McKinney said. “We didn’t really let off the pedal, but I feel like we could have been a lot better in certain situations.

>“But I think it starts in practice. The later the practice gets, still having that same energy, that same mentality of trying to execute perfectly toward the end as we do in the beginning. I think that will fix a lot of issues that we might have had last.”

>The Spurs have held double digit leads in all four games of the NBA Finals, but have lost three of them. The crown jewel of meltdowns came Wednesday, when San Antonio had the largest collapse in NBA history, blew a 29-point lead and dropped a 107-106 decision.

>Green Bay can certainly relate.

>The Packers held a 10-0 lead over Cleveland in Week 3 last season with just 3:38 left and seemed well on their way to improving to 3-0. Instead, the Browns scored the final 13 points of the game, including a 55-yard field goal from kicker Andre Szmyt as time expired.

>Green Bay led Dallas, 13-0, in Week 4 before settling for a 40-40 tie.

>The Packers led Chicago, 16-6, with 2 minutes left during their second regular season meeting on Dec. 20. But Chicago rallied to force overtime, then won it in the extra session when Caleb Williams hit D.J. Moore with a 46-yard TD pass to give the Bears a stunning 22-16 win.

>Green Bay then choked away a 21-3 halftime lead and a 21-6 advantage after three quarters in an eventual 31-27 loss to Chicago in the Wild Card round. The Bears became just the third team in NFL history to score at least 25 points in the fourth quarter and had the biggest comeback in their postseason history.

>Green Bay’s odds of winning those two Chicago games and the Cleveland game in the final minutes ranged between 97-99%. And the odds of the Packers going 0-3 in those contests were 1-in-250,000.

>“That (expletive), it’s starting to get damn-near embarrassing,” safety Javon Bullard said.

>“No way you should lose games in this league when you’re up that much,” running back Josh Jacobs said.

>LaFleur, the Packers’ eighth-year coach, has been harping on finishing throughout practices this spring. LaFleur also had his team watch a video from last season of Green Bay struggling in late-game situations.

>“I think it's just constantly being reinforced on a daily basis,” LaFleur said. “Just kind of keep hammering home the finish aspect. I think the way you improve on that is it's you got to be conscious of it.”

>It would be hard not to be conscious of it. Finishing has been the talk of the town — and throughout all of Packer Nation — since Green Bay collapsed against Chicago on Jan. 10.

>So finishing has been a constant topic, whether that’s on the practice field, the locker room or at the local Denny’s.

>“I think it just comes down to locking down on all the little things,” wide receiver Christian Watson said. “The details, continuing to home in on those details. When we’re getting to that last couple of periods of practice, everybody’s tired. I think that’s what will translate to the game, when we’re getting to that third and fourth quarter and need to find a way to push through and find a way to make a play.

>“Just continue to be locked in on all the little stuff. I think that’s what came back to bite us last year, you kind of saw stuff trickling down when it got to those moments where we needed things most.”

>Tight end Tucker Kraft agreed.

>“I mean, you’ve just have to practice the finish,” Kraft said. “I’ve said this before, you have to get out of bed in the morning and choose to succeed. You have to talk it into existence.

>“You saw the conclusion of the season. We weren’t able to finish and that just speaks to, I don’t know, that’s a tough question. Like I said, it comes down to that conviction you have to finish out those games, each player across the line of scrimmage winning their matchups.”

>It’s easy to practice finishing in June. The proof will come when the 2026 campaign begins.

>Until then, the Packers and Spurs have a lot in common — and that’s not a good thing.

>This article was originally published on Forbes.com