San Antonio Spurs: How Spurs stack up against the best teams in the West

How would the San Antonio Spurs fare against the best teams in the West?

The San Antonio Spurs are one of the most pleasant surprises in the NBA so far, boasting a 16-11 record in the brutal Western Conference while playing one of the association’s toughest early schedules.

Bucking usual franchise trends and on full throttle towards a competitive rebuild, the Silver and Black are starting to resemble a competitive team capable of making noise in the playoffs.

However, there are no guarantees in the NBA, much less in the wild West. While the Spurs’ record brings them to the sixth seed, they are also only 3.5 games away from the 13th, which speaks of the great parity that we see in the league today.

It’s gotten to the point where we’re fairly confident that this team is going to make the playoffs. Don’t bet your life savings on it but they’ve looked competitive, still have areas to improve on, and should be in the hunt for a playoff spot until the very end.

With their next few games postponed while the team deals with several positive COVID-19 tests, this feels like as good of a time as any to look down the road a bit. While still early for forecasts, here is how we see San Antonio matching up against the best of the Western Conference in a hypothetical seven-game series.

Could the San Antonio Spurs take down the Utah Jazz in a seven-game series?

The Utah Jazz are off to the best record in the league early on. Led by young star Donovan Mitchell and defensive stalwart Rudy Gobert, and rounded out by a solid supporting cast in Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdanovic, Joe Ingles and Sixth Man of the Year candidate Jordan Clarkson, Utah is one team that pundits overlook in contender talks.

Quin Snyder has installed a hugely effective offense predicated on spacing and ball movement – a bit reminiscent of the past Spurs – as well as solid positional defense. The team has the makings of a potential championship wildcard.

Gobert is still a world-beater in altering shots and Mitchell continues to be an efficient scorer to lead the herd. Conley has now found his Memphis groove, while Ingles and Bogdanovic supercharge this European-patterned attack with their shooting and playmaking. At the end of the trail awaits explosive guard Clarkson who has been this campaign’s best contributor off the bench.

San Antonio has lost badly in its only meeting with Utah in the season, with its putrid defense allowing the Jazz to bomb away 21 triples en route to a beatdown on the road. However, from a personnel perspective, the Jazz almost always plays Gobert around four perimeter players, thereby not really posing an imposing physical advantage from the get-go against the small-ball Spurs, giving ample room for a competitive series.

If the Spurs can use their length and focus on forcing turnovers by picking on Utah’s extra passing, then they can force Utah to play in isolation more, which Snyder’s system veers away from by design, taking them out of their comfort zone. If they’re not able to do that this series could end up a blowout.

<!—->