Week in Review: Results fall to the backburner in rough news week for Spurs
The Spurs appear destined for another lottery season with Wemby out.
Welcome to the 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 17: The struggling Spurs’ final two games before the All-Star break went as expected: an ugly but much-needed win over the Wizards, followed by an expected loss to the Celtics, where the Spurs at least showed some fight after getting down big early to the defending champions.
Week 18: 1-2 (24-31, 12th in West)
120-109 win vs. Phoenix Suns (Austin)
Recap: Returning from the All-Star break hoping to right the ship and a make a final push for the play-in, the Spurs were slapped with the heartbreaking news that Victor Wembanyama would miss the remainder of the season with a blood clot in his shoulder. That didn’t hurt the Spurs for at least one game, as they were able to counter the Suns’ small-ball lineups and put on an inspiring performance in Austin against one of the teams standing in the way of their fading postseason hopes.
110-125 loss vs. Detroit Pistons (Austin)
Recap: The Spurs couldn’t keep up their inspiring play on the second night of a back-to-back against a much more physical Pistons squad, as Wemby’s absence started to show. After getting down early, the Spurs made a roaring comeback while riding Keldon Johnson’s energy in the second quarter, but they couldn’t sustain that level of play in the second half as they ran out of gas.
96-114 loss at New Orleans Pelicans
Recap: Again hit with rough news between games — in this case, not only will Gregg Popovich not return from his stroke this season, but his future remains uncertain — the Spurs came out strong against an injured Pelicans squad and got up by as much as 17 points. Unfortunately, the same old issue of maintaining leads came back to bite as the offense went ice cold in the second half, turning a comfortable lead into a blowout loss.
Power Rankings
John Schuhmann, NBA.com — 20 (last week: 21)
OffRtg: 112.1 (17) DefRtg: 114.1 (18) NetRtg: -2.0 (19) Pace: 100.1 (12)
Victor Wembanyama is out for the rest of the season and the Spurs appear to be Lottery-bound for the sixth straight season.
Three takeaways
1. Before the All-Star break, the Spurs had allowed 5.4 fewer points per 100 possessions with Wembanyama on the floor (110.0) than they had with him off the floor (115.4). That’s not quite as big as his on-off differential on defense last season (6.1 per 100), but still big for a full-time starter who’s mostly defending against other starters.
2. Even with Wembanyama playing 46 of their 52 games, the Spurs ranked 19th defensively at the break. Without him for the final 30, they may have a bottom-10 defense for a third straight season after ranking in the bottom 10 on either end of the floor just once in the 25 seasons prior.
3. They’ve moved up a spot for now, having held the Suns and Pelicans under 110 points per 100 possessions last week. Of course, the defense fell apart (74 points allowed on 53 possessions) in the second half on Sunday, as the Spurs blew a 17-point lead in New Orleans. They continue to have the most losses (they’re 38-32) after leading by double-digits over the last two seasons.
The Spurs will have another game in New Orleans and then face three of the best teams in the West. They have wins over six of the top seven teams in the conference, with the exception being the Grizzlies (who they’ll visit on Saturday).
Brett Siegel, Clutch Points — N/A (last week: 22)
Coming soon
Coming up: Tues. 2/25 at New Orleans Pelicans; Wed. 2/26 at Houston Rockets; Sat. 3/1 at Memphis Grizzlies; Sun 3/2 vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
Prediction: 1-3 — Talk about a tough stretch. Even the much-needed return home from the Rodeo Road Trip to end the week happens to be against the best team in the West. The one win in my prediction is banking on the idea that bad teams (in this case, the Pelicans) rarely sweep miniseries while hoping the Spurs play more like they did in the first half of Game 1 in New Orleans for the entirety of Game 2.
