Welcome to 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 19: Concluding the Rodeo Road Trip with an East Coast trip, the Spurs continued their undefeated February to extend their best winning streak in ten seasons to 11 by getting a big win in the home of the then (but not anymore) top team in the NBA in the Detroit Pistons, a flip-the-switch fourth-quarter rally in Tornoto, and finally a blowout
win against the lowly Brooklyn Nets — all despite Victor Wembanyama having off nights offensively. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and in what is turning out to be one-off, the win streak was snapped in a blowout loss to the Knicks in MSG.
Week 20: 4-0 (47-17, 2nd in West)
131-91 win at Philadelphia 76ers
Even though a bounce-back win seemed imminent against a 76ers squad missing Joel Embiid and Paul George, likely no one saw this big of a blowout coming. (If they did, NBC wouldn’t have chosen this game for their big throwback occasion.) Everyone contributed, and things got so bad that the Spurs were on the brink of outdoing their 51-point victory over the “Trust the Process” 76ers from 10 years ago before the third string was outscored by nine-points in the fourth-quarter, so they “settled” for the 40-point victory to conclude the Rodeo Road Trip 8-1, tying their best mark from its inaugural version in 2003.
121-106 win vs. Detroit Pistons
The first game back from a long road trip is always a trap regardless of the opponent, but the Spurs didn’t let being home for the first time in a month relax them. Instead, they came out and proved their win in Detroit was no fluke, riding the hot hands of Wemby and De’Aaron fox, who combined to score 67 points in a thrashing of the top team in the East. (Of note, the Spurs have now passed them in the league standings, but that only matters if a) they keep it up and b) they make the Finals. Tougher tests will come first.)
116-112 win vs. Los Angeles Clippers
As solid as their win over the Pistons was, it was physically draining, and that showed as the Spurs hosted Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers the very next night. They looked dead in the water as the Clippers climbed up to a 25-point lead in the third quarter, but as they are wont to do, the Spurs found a second wind and flipped the switch for their second-largest comeback of all time. 17 points from Julian Champagnie in the third quarter kicked things off, and huge three-pointers, fast breaks and plenty of drama in the final seconds literally had Wemby crying tears of joy and relief afterwards, as he admitted how exhausted he was and thought he was going to pass out, making it was one of the hardest games of his life.
145-120 win vs. Houston Rockets
After opening the week with a semi-surprising blowout, the Spurs decided to one-up themselves with an even more surprising one against a hit-or-miss Rockets squad. The offense remained on fire from the Clippers game, with Wemby getting whatever he wanted on offense, and on defense, the Spurs were committed to making everyone but Kevin Durant beat them. After a hot first quarter, the strategy worked, and the Spurs methodically put their IH-10 Rivals away to win the series 3-1 and put an even wider gap between them and the next tier of the West.
Power Rankings
John Schuhmann, NBA.com — 1 (last week: 1)
OffRtg: 117.5 (5) DefRtg: 110.2 (3) NetRtg: +7.2 (3) Pace: 100.9 (13)
The Spurs are 15-1 since Feb. 1, a stretch that includes a sweep of the Pistons, an incredible comeback from 25 points down against the Clippers, and a thrashing of the Rockets on Sunday.
Three takeaways
1. Victor Wembanyama had a few quiet (and inefficient) offensive games at the end of the Spurs’ 11-game winning streak. And his offense wasn’t really needed in the Spurs’ 40-point win in Philadelphia on Tuesday. But he’s scored 94 points (on a true shooting percentage of 69%) in less than 91 minutes over the Spurs’ last three games. That includes 27 in less than 22 minutes (in the second game of a back-to-back) against the Clippers on Friday, when he had two go-ahead buckets (a pick-and-pop 3 and a leak-out dunk) in the final 70 seconds. Not coincidentally, it’s been the Spurs’ best three-game stretch of offense this season (129.1 points scored per 100 possessions), even though two of the three opponents (Detroit and Houston) have top-10 defenses.
2. With that, the Spurs are now a top-five team on both ends of the floor. They ranked in the top five on both ends three times under Gregg Popovich: 2006-07 (won the NBA Finals), 2013-14 (won the NBA Finals) and 2015-16 (lost in the Western Conference semifinals).
3. Wembanyama is also averaging 4.5 blocks over the Spurs’ 10 games since the All-Star break. He’s got more blocks than fouls for the third straight season, but he has been more physical this year, averaging 3.3 fouls per 36 minutes, up from 2.6 per 36 over his first two seasons. Of course, the Spurs still lead the league in opponent free-throw rate (23.3 attempts per 100 shots from the field).Coming up: The Spurs and Nuggets last met in November, when they combined to score more than 136 points per 100 possessions in a three-point, San Antonio win that clinched a spot in the NBA Cup quarterfinals. They still have three more meetings left on the schedule, and the Spurs will have a rest advantage at home on Thursday, one of three very intriguing games this week.
Law Murray, The Athletic — 1 (last week: 2)
First quarter: B+
Second quarter: B
Third quarter: AFirst, the grade: The Spurs have been an absolute problem to deal with in Victor Wembanyama’s minutes. He needs an alternative nickname, and I want to suggest “The Armoire.” It’s French, it’s tall, and it can hold the tools that Wembanyama brings to the table on both ends. For the season, Spurs foes shoot 41.8 percent from the field when Wembanyama is on the floor. Since Jan. 21, that figure is 41.2 percent. And the Spurs use that defense to blow out teams from the jump or to overcome massive deficits, such as the 25-point deficit San Antonio faced against the Clippers. Punctuating the week with a season-best scoring performance against the Houston Rockets sealed that regular-season series as well. They’re the best team in the league, and all they need is to figure out how to sustain it for a maiden playoff run.
Brett Siegel, Clutch Points — 1 (last week: 1)
It really isn’t difficult to call the San Antonio Spurs the best team in the NBA right now, which is why they sit atop the power rankings yet again. Aside from being the Oklahoma City Thunder’s kryptonite throughout the regular season, the Spurs have lost just once since the start of February.
If it weren’t for some injuries and consistency problems in January, this team would own the best record in the NBA and be alone at the top of the Western Conference standings.
The Spurs went 4-0 this past week, with a 40-point blowout win over Philadelphia, a commanding 15-point win over Detroit, and a statement 25-point win at home over Houston. Not to mention, the Spurs erased a 25-point deficit against the LA Clippers to come back and win on Friday. In this four-game stretch, the Spurs outscored their opponents by 84 points while averaging 128.3 points per game.
Coming up: Tues. 3/10 vs. Boston Celtics; Thurs. 3/12 vs. Denver Nuggets; Sat. 3/14 vs. Charlotte Hornets
Prediction: 3-0 — The gantlet that is this six-game homestand continues with a Celtics team that now has Jayson Tatum back, a Nuggets team that has MVP candidate Nikola Jokic and just got Aaron Gordon back (but may have lost Jamal Murray) and a Hornets squad that has come back to earth a bit in the last few games but has still been one of the hottest teams in the league this calendar year, along with the Spurs. All three of these games are just as losable as they are winnable, but the Spurs have shown their current form is for real with a 14-1 stretch, so I’m all bought in. Bring it on.
