The Spurs are headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2019, with Game 1 against the Portland Trail Blazers set for 8 PM CT on Sunday. That’s still several days out, so in the meantime, we’re looking back one of the best regular seasons in franchise history.
In Part 1, we reviewed the first part of the Spurs season that featured a strong start despite missing De’Aaron Fox to start the season and Victor Wembanyama for 12 straight games. In Part 2, we recalled their memorable and arguably season-defining
stretch in the second half of December, which featured Wemby’s return and a Cup Semi-finals win plus two more in a 12-day span against the defending champion Thunder, officially putting the Spurs on the map. The year concluded with a record-breaking performance from Julian Champagnie against the Knicks, but then the Spurs hit arguably their only rough patch of the season, which is where we’re picking up today.
Part 3: January 2026 (8-7)
After suffering a strained oblique in the Knicks game to close 2025, Wemby missed the two opening games of 2026: a win over the lowly Pacers and close loss at home to the Trail Blazers. (I’m just now realizing Wemby missed all three regular season matchups against them this season, so there’s a new twist to the playoffs due to them not having a chance to scout that match-up.) He soon returned, but January continued to follow an up-and-down pattern with some good wins combined with frustrating losses.
They got their second win over Lakers despite a typical 38-10-10 triple double from Luka Doncic, followed by a victory in Boston against a Celtics club that was supposed to be in a “gap” year with Jayson Tatum missing most of the season and them having to trade away a lot of their depth but rode an MVP-level performance from Jalen Brown to the second seed in the East. Oh, and the Lakers game was our last great Jeremy Sochan “troll” moment as he set off Jared Vanderbilt after the game.
Those two wins were followed by road losses to two playoff teams in the Timberwolves and Thunder, but then it was up again with another classic match-up between Wemby and Giannis Antetokounmpo. (It wasn’t that exciting of a game, but who knows where this match-up is headed with Giannis uncertain future with the Bucks, so we’ll enjoy it while it lasts.)
That was followed by a heart attack-inducing but thrilling victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Spurs built a 25-point halftime lead thanks to a season-high 48 points in the second quarter, but in pattern from each of their match-ups against this team this season, the Spurs proceeded to blow it while Anthony Edwards scored 26 of his 55 points in the fourth quarter. The Wolves eventually took the lead before bald Wemby went into superstar mode to bring them back with a 39-point performance, but it wasn’t won without plenty of free throw drama first.
The Spurs continued to trade wins and losses from there, with wins against the Jazz and Rockets alternating with losses to the Pelicans and Rockets, and of course who can forget the final game in January, when their Saturday game in Charlotte got moved back to noon so they could play and get out before the impending snow storm, only for the Spurs to blow the game in the final moments, still get trapped by the weather, and face even more troubles before getting back to San Antonio for a game the very next day. If there was one month to forget from this season, January was it.
They say all good teams must go through some adversity to truly come together, and as it turned out, this may have been it. From there, the Spurs would go on a nearly unprecedented run the rest of the way, so check back tomorrow for the greatest moments of the (very long) final stretch of the season, when the Spurs proved to be a true contender.
