San Antonio Spurs Starting To Roll After 5th Win In 6 Games
By Cody Daniel
After having the slight upper hand for the majority of the night as the San Antonio Spurs just barely outlasted the Cleveland Caveliers 92-90, which is good for a two-game win streak after knocking the arguably the most talented club in the game in the Cavs, and the talent-deprived Philadelphia 76ers.
But more importantly, the Spurs have now won five of their last six games in their efforts to climb back into power in the Western Conference.
Currently sitting as the sixth seed in the West right now with a 7-4 record – which goes to show how deep the Western Conference is yet again this season – San Antonio is starting to look like one of the hottest teams in the NBA, there’s no reason to expect them to cool down any time soon.
As I mentioned recently, San Antonio is now two games into a relatively simple stretch of their schedule, outside of a few matchups with Cleveland, which they just won, along with Sacramento and Memphis.
The Spurs are 2-0 during the beginning of this stretch and could very possibly be coming off their ninth straight win by the time they matchup with the NBA leading Memphis Grizzlies, as they will see Minnesota twice, Brooklyn twice, Indiana, Sacramento, Boston, Philadelphia, the Jazz, Knicks and Lakers.
That’s 10 games out of 12 where the defending champs will be pitted against a team that has a sub-.500 record and unlikely to be in the playoffs.
San Antonio is currently three games behind first in the Western Conference leading Grizzlies, who boast a league-best 10-2 record, but if the Spurs can go 12-2 or 13-1 throughout this less demanding portion of their schedule, San Antonio could end up with an 18-6 record, which should leave them only 1.5 or two games out of first.
That’s pretty solid ground to make up in the extremely competitive West, where there will likely be two or three teams with above .500 records on the outside looking in come playoff time.
Additionally, considering the Spurs were 2-3 only a couple weeks ago, we could be looking at complete turn around for San Antonio if they can dominate for the next 10 to 12 games like we can expect them to.
Luckily, San Antonio get’s to enjoy the sites a bit through this easier stretch of the schedule, which will be a great opportunity for the Spurs to tighten up some of the loose ends we have seen them struggle with early this season, just as Tim Duncan stated in his post-game interview after defeating the Cavaliers, “we’re still trying to get ourselves together.”
After winning five of their last six games, it appears San Antonio is doing just fine on getting themselves together, and should continue in doing so against some of the NBA’s bottom-feeders over the next few weeks.
After that, things will get a bit more difficult, beginning with Denver, Portland and Memphis, but for now, the Spurs have won five of six and will be looking to keep that hot streak going Friday against the Timberwolves.
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