Spurs: 3 Reasons remainder of schedule isn’t as intimidating as it seems

The San Antonio Spurs once daunting schedule is looking less intimidating lately

For weeks now, we’ve been talking about how challenging the remainder of the San Antonio Spurs season schedule is, and for good reason. But maybe we’ve been overdoing it just a bit.

As it stands today, the Spurs have the toughest rest of season schedule in the NBA according to Tankathon. Here is a brief look at who they’ve got on deck over the next two and a half weeks: Celtics, Heat, 76ers, Jazz (x2), Kings, Blazers, Bucks, Nets, Knicks, Suns (x2). Altogether, their game against the Kings marks the only time they’ll face an opponent under .500 for the rest of the season.

Compounding the difficulties presented by the schedule is the recent injury to Derrick White. The Spurs dynamic two-way guard had to be helped off the court in Washington after twisting his ankle and no timetable has been set for his return. It’s a tough loss for the Spurs and an even tougher blow to a player who had finally been hitting his stride after overcoming numerous obstacles this season.

Still, the San Antonio Spurs are in a good position to make the play-in tournament and if they really step up, could miss the tournament entirely and head straight to the playoffs. I’m not expecting them to go undefeated but their once intimidating end-of-season schedule is looking a lot more manageable now and here are three reasons why.

San Antonio Spurs recent wins have given them some breathing room

After plummeting during the later bits of March and into April, the San Antonio Spurs have turned things around recently. Thanks to an improved defense and some stellar clutch play from DeMar DeRozan they’ve won five of their last six.

All that winning has given the Spurs just enough breathing room that slipping out of the play-in tournament looks fairly unlikely at this point. They’re four and a half games in front of the Pelicans now and barring another long losing streak – which isn’t a complete impossibility, mind you – they should at the very least, be contending for one of the final two playoff spots.

On the other side of things, their recent bout of winning has put them just two and a half games behind the Dallas Mavericks for ownership of the sixth spot. Could the Spurs stretch this thing out and make the playoffs outright? It’s not impossible, but it sure won’t be easy.

While San Antonio faces what is projected to be the toughest remaining schedule in the league, the Mavericks have the 3rd easiest. Another team standing between the Spurs and Mavericks is the Memphis Grizzlies who have the easiest remaining schedule in the league.

So while the Spurs are looking increasingly likely to make the play-in, their chances of making the playoffs straight up aren’t looking great. In any case, the recent wins have given them the breathing room they need to comfortably focus on the task at hand without worrying about heading straight to the lottery.

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