San Antonio Spurs: Three key games in new schedule

No. 1: Portland Trail Blazers vs. San Antonio Spurs (Jan. 18)

Despite their eventual success, the Portland Trail Blazersstruggled for a large part of the regular season. They finished just 35-39, however, seven of those wins came during the bubble series and play-in games after the season hiatus.

San Antonio’s series against the Trail Blazers didn’t go the way they’d hoped. Though the Spurs were able to pull a win against Portland in the first matchup between the two, they ended up going 1-2 against Portland last season.

Portland has seemed to always be missing something over the last few years, but their front office still hasn’t been able to figure out exactly what that is, and San Antonio may be able to take advantage of that missing link.

If the Spurs could pull together and get a dominant series over the Blazers, it would almost guarantee a playoff spot for San Antonio, should the Spurs also have a winning record against the Grizzlies and Rockets as previously mentioned.

With a short season, there’s even more pressure for teams to perform well right out of the gate. San Antonio is obviously no exception. If the Spurs can come out strong and pick up wins in some key games during the season, they will prove to be one of the few teams able to go from playoff team to playoff team without a large rebuild in the middle.