Most of the players on the team fell off a cliff during the regular season, it didn't really have much to do with the Clippers, it was the case all season

..other than Leonard and Green and maybe Duncan, literally every player on the saw a significant decline from the previous year during the regular season..
There isn't really a precedent for the Spurs, they were coming off 3 straight runs into end of May/mid-June with 3/4 of their core being past their primes, they were going to run out of gas at some point..the only comparable team from mileage/status was probably the 1998 Bulls, and their Finals opponent(Utah) was virtually the same team as the Clippers' team that the Spurs lost to, this season, according to the metrics..
I just find it strange that you think they went from having one of the best playoff runs in league history to the 6th(!!) seed in just a matter of months, simply because the compe ion got tougher

..