Are the Spurs Shaping up to be a Playoff Team?

Katie Haugland, Los Angeles Lakers vs. San Antonio Spurs, 20 April 2012. Licensed under CC BY 2.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

4-0 is the Spurs’ current record, winning against the Mavericks, Pelicans, Nets, and the Raptors. This is their best start since the 2017-18 season, where they also started 4-0. Why are they doing so good?

Victor Wembanyama is that reason. In the Spurs’ opening game against the Mavericks, Wembanyama scored 40 points and got 15 rebounds. When the Spurs played against the Pelicans, he scored 29 and got 9 blocks. In the game against the Nets, he scored 31 points, had 14 rebounds, and had 6 blocks. In the game vs the Raptors, he scored 24 points and had 15 rebounds. This is only the beginning of the season.

It is only their 4^th game into the season, and they have about 170 days until the NBA playoffs. A lot can happen in 170 days. Players get injured, or you see teams go on a high run and then drop. In hindsight, it’s too early to say if the Spurs are going to make the playoffs.

What’s different? For one, they have a new head coach. Mitch Johnson replaced Gregg Popovich, who stepped down after 29 seasons. The offense is still messy and needs few tweaks. However, in the game against the Pelicans, the team was able to pull out a win in overtime without Wembanyama, who fouled out. We can also credit Mitch Johnson for coaching that offense.

Johnson acknowledged in the press conference after the win that his players could’ve played better, but when it came down to it, his guys executed plays.

“Everybody had some really rough moments tonight, and it was good to see, especially in the second half.” “A lot of guys stepped up and made plays.”

I think it’s also fair to say that the reason for the undefeated record is that this team has grown. When Wembanyama joined, it was a relatively young team, and it was their building years, but now it’s time for them to win.

De’ DeAndre Fox is also returning to the court after coming off a hamstring injury. Fox was traded in the offseason from the Sacramento Kings. So, it’ll be interesting to see what this team will look like with him out there.