Los Angeles Lakers: Ranking prospective first-round opponents
By Amaar Burton
4. San Antonio Spurs
These are not your father’s Spurs.
Tim Duncan is now an assistant coach after retiring as a player. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are retired. Bruce Bowen and Boris Diaw are gone. Kawhi Leonard chose to leave the franchise before he grew into arguably the best player in the world.
The roster’s only remaining links to the Spurs’ last championship team in 2014 are backup guards Patty Mills and Marco Belinelli.
Head coach Gregg Popovich still runs the show in San Antonio like the NBA’s Bill Belichick, but this version of the Spurs (27-36) is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 1997.
If they can rally and sneak into the postseason, though, the Spurs could be a handful for the Lakers. If for no other reason than it’s never wise to bet against Popovich.
The Spurs are 0-3 against the Lakers this season, with each loss getting increasingly worse. Their last meeting was a 27-point blowout in favor of the Lakers.
Popovich, however, has a history of success against LeBron-led teams. He’s coached against LeBron longer than anyone else in the league, for all of LeBron’s 17 seasons. The Spurs handed LeBron two of his six NBA Finals losses; a sweep in 2007 and a lopsided five-game series in 2014.
Of course, Popovich had Hall of Famers and Defensive Player of the Year candidates back then. The Spurs don’t have that currently, but they’re not without talent.
Power forward LaMarcus Aldridge is an All-Star level player, but his numbers are down this season at 18.9 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. Shooting guard DeMar DeRozan is another All-Star caliber standout. He’s putting up 22.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game along with a career-best 52.6 field-goal percentage, but in the weeks leading up to the league pause, he’d been inconsistent offensively.
Dejounte Murray, Bryn Forbes, Derrick White, Lonnie Walker IV and Mills provide backcourt depth that could give L.A. problems, and veteran Rudy Gay can add offensive firepower on the wing.
It’s not a championship-caliber squad but could be just good enough for Popovich to figure out a way to put the Lakers on their heels.