Week in Review: Shorthanded Spurs continue to fight until the end
Despite massive additions to the injury report, the Spurs played neck-and-neck with three postseason-bound teams, pulling off one upset in the process.
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 23: The Spurs surprised everyone with their first three-game winning streak since 2022, including home wins over the Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks.
Week 24: 1-2 (19-59, 15th in West)
105-110 loss at Denver Nuggets
Recap: With several key additions to the injury report — including Jeremy Sochan and Devin Vassell for the remainder of the season — Victor Wembanyama barely missed his first quadruple-double (and I’m convinced there will be multiple) as the Spurs brought the defending champions down to the wire, but Nikola Jokic was too much to overcome.
111-109 win at New Orleans Pelicans
Recap: The Spurs used a team effort to upset an also-shorthanded Pelicans team (that still had noted Spurs killers Jonas Valanciunas and CJ McCollum) trying to escape the play-in in their own building, led by big games from bench warmers Devonte’ Graham and Sandro Mamukelashvili.
126-133 2OT loss vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Recap: In another battle of the shorthanded, Wemby put up 30-point 5×5 game as the Spurs battled the 76ers through two overtimes, but 52 points from Tyrese Maxey was just enough for Philly to pull it out in the end.
In case you missed it
- Injuries hitting hard — Jeremy Sochan is out for the rest season after undergoing surgery to relieve an ankle impingement (pinching of the tissue between the leg and foot), as is Devin Vassel with a stress reaction in his foot (weakening of the bone to the point it could break without time to heal). While not yet ruled out for the season, Cedi Osman and Keldon Johnson also suffered sprained ankles with little time left to return.
- More honors for Tre Jones — After being a finalist for the NBA’s Community Service and Social Justice awards last season, this season, Jones has been named the Southwest Division’s finalist for the Sportsmanship award.
- ROM again — Wemby won his third straight Rookie of the Month award, all but assuring him the Rookie of the Year award (as if it wasn’t already). At the same time, he’s picking up support for Defensive Player of the Year. The stats are there, but can voters bring themselves to go with a rookie on a bottom 10 defense?
- The case for the Spurs leave the point guard position alone — Casey Coggins makes the argument that the Spurs are good enough at PG (for now) and should focus more on wings and shooters in the offseason.
- For even more things Wemby, check out Every day is Wembsday, courtesy of Mikey Rouleau.
Power Rankings
John Schuhmann, NBA.com — 24 (last week: 23)
OffRtg: 109.4 (26) DefRtg: 116.2 (22) NetRtg: -6.8 (26) Pace: 101.8 (3)
Victor Wembanyama has lived up to the hype, making history with the numbers he’s put up and emerging as the best rookie defender we’ve seen in a long time. Yet the Spurs still need another win to avoid finishing with the worst record in franchise history.
One takeaway
While their winning percentage has gone down, the Spurs have been 3.1 points per 100 possessions better than they were last season, with that being the league’s eighth biggest jump. And the numbers have been much better when their best players have played. They’ve outscored their opponents by 9.0 per 100 in 806 total minutes with Wembanyama, Tyus Jones [sic*] and Devin Vassell all on the floor, but have been outscored by 9.0 per 100 in 1,344 minutes with only two of the three on the floor.
What to watch for this summer
The Spurs shouldn’t feel a ton of urgency, but Vassell and Wembanyama are ready to win some games now, they obviously need more guys to complement them, and the team will have the cap flexibility to sign or trade for a player or two who can fill out the rest of the starting (or closing) lineup.
* Should be Tre Jones
Brett Siegel, Clutch Points — 24 (last week: 25)
Victor Wembanyama. That sums up what the 2023-24 season has been for the San Antonio Spurs.
The first overall pick is about to be named the 2023-24 NBA Rookie of the Year, and he is going to be the foundation of the next era in San Antonio moving forward. Much like they had with David Robinson and Tim Duncan in their team’s history, the Spurs have their pinnacle of what can be a championship core moving forward.
The Spurs now have a big week ahead of them to finish out the season, as they can play spoilers to the Thunder and Nuggets pertaining to the Western Conference playoff race. Games against the Grizzlies and Pistons can also shake up the NBA Draft lottery. Who said games in April don’t matter to teams that have been eliminated?
Coming up: Tues. 4/9 @ Memphis Grizzlies; Wed. 4/10 @ Oklahoma City Thunder; Fri. 4/12 vs. Denver Nuggets; Sun. 4/14 vs. Detroit Pistons
Prediction 2-2 — As the last couple of weeks have shown, you never know what the end of the season will bring. The top 10 seeds are confirmed for both conferences, but the Spurs will catch a couple of teams in direct competition with each other for the top seed in the West. They might take the Spurs more seriously than recent postseason-bound teams have, but there’s also a couple of very winnable games in there, including the season finale at home against the worst team in the league. That would help them avoid becoming the worst team record-wise in franchise history.
