The Spurs are headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2019, and we now know their first round opponent will be the Portland Trail Blazers, with Game 1 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.
Yesterday, we looked at the first part of the season, which featured a 5-0 start, followed by the Spurs continuing to roll despite missing Victor Wembanyama for 12 straight games thanks to a calf
strain. In his absence, the Spurs still thrived thanks to the leadership of De’Aaron Fox and the superior depth they had developed over the years via the draft and free agency. It all added up to a win on the road against the Lakers to earn a trip to Las Vegas for the NBA Cup Semi-Finals, which is where we’re picking things up today.
Part 2: Dec. 13 – Dec. 31 (7-2*)
* Not counting their loss in the NBA Cup Final to the Knicks.
Technically, this is just nine games (10 if you count the Cup Final that fortunately counts as Wemby’s 65th game and makes him award eligible but not in any other capacity), so it might be a stretch to consider this an entire segment of the season, but it was too memorable not to! Still, even though I counted the first part of December in Part 1 (since we’re using Wemby’s return as the launching point for this part), we’ll still point out that a win in New Orleans on December 8 kicked off their first 8-game winning streak since 2019, and they went 11-3 overall (again, not counting the Cup Final). Also, the Spurs had 8 different players lead the team in scoring in December, which is mind-blowing and another reminder of their insane depth (hat tip to TontonOngBak).
The third game of that winning streak is where we’re kicking things off here, beginning in Las Vegas with Wemby returning to from his extended absence, albeit in a bench role and on minutes restrictions, just in time for the first of what would be three surprising victories over the Semifinals after a back and forth 4th quarter, which officially brought the Spurs to the national audience’s attention.
While they would go on to lose the Cup Final to the Knicks (who are a surprisingly stubborn matchup for them), it didn’t officially count, although Keldon Johnson still got a big enough bonus to get his llamas! From there, they continued their win streak with a few easy games against the Wizards and Hawks before a home-away miniseries against the Thunder, in which they blew them out at home before a surprisingly comfortable win in OKC on Christmas Day. As Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went on to say, you don’t lose to the same team three times in 12 days without them being better than you.
After all that excitement, they returned home for a couple of letdown losses against the Jazz and Utah before ending on a high note. In what is becoming a trend in their home games against the Knicks, a random role player steps up with a historical performance to lead the Spurs to an exciting victory. Last year, it was Sandro Mamukelashvili with 34 points on 93% shooting (7-7 from three!), and this season, it was Julian Champagnie with a career-high 36 points while hitting a franchise record 11 threes on 17 attempts to lead them to a come-from-behind 134-132 win on New Year’s Eve and cap off a memorable 2025 for the team.
It sure was a December to remember after such an amazing run, and now, the Spurs were officially on everyone’s radar. Check back tomorrow as we visit part three, which was arguably their only “rough” patch of the season.
