In rock and roll, a great band distinguishes itself through longevity and the versatility of its members. One that instantly jumps to mind is the Rolling Stones because on many tracks, Mick Jagger’s vocals touched a nerve, and on others, the most memorable parts were how Mick Taylor and Keith Richards made their guitars weep.
In the NBA and in many other fields, the same principles of a great band apply to a team. In the hoops realm, the one that instantly jumps to mind is the San Antonio Spurs. They’ve
won seven in a row and had seven different leading scorers. Part of the formula has been speeding up their offense to the 7th-fastest team in the league during that stretch, while maintaining a high-level defense (7th). That says a lot of good things about their conditioning since going faster could break down their legs.
Of course, they are a young outfit and have not had a chance to show their longevity, but they’ve done everything right this year. That includes not dropping one outing against any of the bad teams.
The Spurs are the hottest team in the league and are sixth in point differential (6.8). The two best wins were 10 days apart against the defending champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are trying to break the NBA’s regular-season win record (73). It is still possible for the Thunder (26-4) to break the record, but the Spurs made things exponentially harder. It continued the trend of Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson, the two longest tenured guys, showing up for big games this year. Also, Stephon Castle showed us he was ready for prime time, cooking the best defense in the league twice.
Somehow, they are only 3.5 games behind the Thunder, too. While three of their victories in their current seven-game wins treak were against the Washington Wizards and the New Orleans Pelicans, who are squads at the bottom, not too much can be taken away from that, so it’s best to evaluate only when they’ve seen worthy competition.
Victor Wembanyama has played in the last five of the wins, coming back from his calf strain, and it’s all been off the bench. As much as it has been for precaution, playing him lower minutes can also help to slowly transition him back into an offense because doing it too quickly could throw off the other players who were in a groove. That was one of the issues the Miami Heat experienced when Tyler Herro returned for six games while they were rolling without him.
Wembanyama’s bench run is a cheat code because he gets to feast on more reserves, as Stephen Curry did for a four games against the undermanned Denver Nuggets in the 2022 playoffs. Notably, the Spurs have only been down twice when Wembanyama enters the game for the first time, and each time he had help turn things around.
This is a nice chapter as it’s their second considerable win streak, through only 35 percent of the season. Depth and unselfishness has been their calling card. There is no reason think that is going to change.
