Welcome to the Week in Review: a Monday feature that looks back at the week that was for the San Antonio Spurs, takes a look at the week ahead, and more. Enjoy!
Week 11: The Spurs lost two starters to injury and their offensive rhythm as they continued to come back down to earth from their Christmas high, splitting the week with losses at home to the Cavs and Trail Blazers sandwiched around a wins over the Knicks (featuring a franchise-record 11 threes from Julian Champagnie) and Pacers.
Week 12: 2-2 (27-12, 2nd in West)
105-106 loss
at Memphis Grizzlies
Victor Wembanyama returned and looked great despite coming off the bench in limited minutes, but after leading for most of the first three quarters by as much as 11, the Spurs lost focus in the fourth and found themselves having to make another comeback attempt. It looked like they might pull it off, with De’Aaron Fox making a series of clutch shots and an impressive chase-down block to get back ahead by 4 with under two minutes left, but in a trend we’ll see again this week, they couldn’t get enough stops or get a good shot off to lose at the buzzer.
107-91 win vs. Los Angeles Lakers
In arguably their first comfortable win since Christmas, the Spurs ended their two game skid against sub-.500 teams by doing something they’ve usually done well this season: play up to winning teams. The Spurs took advantage of the Lakers missing Austin Reeves and LeBron James, rendering everyone else useless to the point that a typical 38-10-10 line from Luka Doncic hardly mattered. The defense also helped make up for the fact that the Spurs only hitting a total of 4 threes on the night (from Keldon Johnson and Jeremy Sochan, of all people).
Although their offense remained M.I.A., the Spurs went to the home of one of the hottest teams in the NBA and stole an improbable win by once again leaning on their defense, which has been the best in the league over the last five games. After a slow first half, the Spurs leaned on the Wemby minutes to make their runs, and this time they executed on both ends in the clutch to get ahead and stay there. (Holding the Celtics to just 4 free throw attempts, much to their understandable chagrin, didn’t hurt either.)
103-104 loss at Minnesota Timberwolves
Remember where I said we’d see the theme of the Grizzlies loss again this week? This was it, as the Spurs dominated early, starting on a 16-0 run and leading by as much as 19 in third quarter before completely falling apart in the fourth (also a repeat of their November match-up up north). The Wolves made the adjustment of putting the more physical Julius Randall on Wemby, who had been cooking Rudy Gobert, and that threw them completely out of whack. Both teams traded blows to retake the lead a couple of times in the final minute, but the Spurs couldn’t capitalize on two game-winning attempts for another loss at the buzzer.
Power Rankings
John Schuhmann, NBA.com — 4 (last week: 1)
OffRtg: 116.6 (8) DefRtg: 111.2 (3) NetRtg: +5.4 (5) Pace: 101.0 (14)
The Spurs are just 4-5 since their consecutive wins over the Thunder the week of Christmas, a stretch that includes losses to the Jazz, Blazers and Grizzlies. But they got a good win in Boston on Saturday and remain in second place in the West.
Three takeaways
1. The Spurs scored 129.3 points per 100 possessions over those two late-December wins over the Thunder, two of Oklahoma City’s three worst defensive games of the season. But the Spurs rank 28th offensively (109.1 points scored per 100) since Christmas, with shooting struggles from multiple guys in their rotation. Harrison Barnes (37.7%), Stephon Castle (36.3%) and Dylan Harper (34.8%) rank 146th, 147th and 148th in effective field goal percentage among the 148 players with at least 65 field goal attempts since Christmas, with De’Aaron Fox (44.8%) also in the bottom 12.
2. But in beating the Lakers and Celtics last week, the Spurs held two top-10 offenses (at the time) to a combined 93 points per 100 possessions, with the win over the Celtics on Saturday being the only time Boston has been held under a point per possession. They were coming off a game where they scored a season-high 62 points in the paint, but shot just 18-for-36 in the paint against San Antonio, also tallying just four free throw attempts. De’Aaron Fox had the biggest defensive play of the night, stripping Jaylen Brown with the Spurs up two in the final minute.
3. After three games coming off the bench, Victor Wembanyama was back in the starting lineup on Sunday, when the Spurs opened the game on a 16-0 run and outscored the Wolves by 17 points in his 27 minutes on the floor. But Wembanyama’s minutes on the bench were rough, the Spurs blew a 19-point lead and missed two shots for the win on their final possession. They’ve now been 13.1 points per 100 possessions better with Wembanyama on the floor (plus-13.6) than they’ve been with him off the floor (plus-0.5).
Coming up: The Spurs will finish their tough, three-game trip with another meeting with the champs. They’ve outscored the Thunder by 47 points (32.6 per 100 possessions) in Wembanyama’s 70 total minutes over the first three games.
Brett Siegel, Clutch Points — 1 (last week: 2)
It appears as if the San Antonio Spurs will be back in the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Although this young group, led by first-year head coach Mitch Johnson, has already exceeded expectations, especially with three wins over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Spurs aren’t in a spot where they will push hard to make themselves a championship-contending organization.
Instead, San Antonio will continue to construct their roster organically through the draft and player development. The Spurs don’t face any pressure to make a move at this year’s trade deadline, and it would be surprising if they did. Harrison Barnes and Kelly Olynyk are two veterans the organization values, and there’s been a level of pushback regarding Jeremy Sochan’s availability.
Sochan is in the final year of his rookie contract and has seemed to fall out of the nightly rotation, yet he is still looked at as a voice of reason on the bench and someone who instills toughness in the team. Expect the Spurs to continue trending upward in the Western Conference playoff picture.
Coming up: Tues. 1/13 at Oklahoma City Thunder (33-7); Thurs. 1/15 vs. Milwaukee Bucks (17-22); Sat. 1/17 vs. Minnesota Timberwolves (26-14)
Prediction: 3-0 — I wanted to go 2-1 here (it’s another tough slate, plus I’m skeptical about getting a FOURTH win against OKC in a month), but the optimist in me is winning out. The Spurs stand a decent chance of being 100% with Devin Vassell possibly returning (he was listed as questionable ahead of Sunday’s game), and frankly the Thunder haven’t played any better than the Spurs over the last couple of weeks. Then, they actually get consecutive home games, and while they won’t be easy with Giannis Antetokounmpo back for the Bucks and the Wolves proving they can be a problem for the Spurs, they have to get out of their offensive funk eventually, and what better time than now? If they can return to form on offense while maintaining that stifling defense, watch out, world.
