Week in Review: Spurs go winless against a tough schedule
03/31/2025 03:00 PM
The Spurs couldn't find a win against four postseason-bound teams in one week.
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 22: In one of the more fun weeks of the season, the Spurs lost their makeup game in Los Angeles before exploding for three straight wins, including a Mamu Mania-led win against the Knicks, rally past the tanking 76ers, and a blowout win in Toronto that featured a rare defensive display.
Week 23: 0-4 (31-43, 13th in West)
96-122 loss at Detroit Pistons
Recap: After boasting a league-leading offence for the month of March, the Spurs came crashing back to earth for the final week. It all began in Detroit, where they only hit two field goals in the second quarter, digging too big of a hole to climb out of despite the Pistons missing All-Star guard Cade Cunningham.
116-124 loss at Cleveland Cavaliers
Recap: The Spurs had a bounce-back performance against the leader of the Eastern Conference, going toe-to-toe with the Cavs almost the entire game, but their lack of size finally caught up as Cleveland made adjustments in the fourth quarter, and Jarrett Allen dominated the post to end the Spurs' upset bid.
111-121 loss vs. Boston Celtics
Recap: Back home from their three-game road trip, the second seed in the East was waiting for the Spurs. Once again, they put up an admirable fight, never letting the Celtics put them away and fighting until the end, but they were simply out-talented and too undersized against the defending champions.
106-148 loss vs. Golden State Warriors
Recap: Perhaps fatigued from the Celtics game the night before, the Spurs looked completely lost in wall-to-wall shellacking. The Warriors exposed their lackadaisical defense from the opening tip, and none of the starters had anything going on offense outside of a decent stretch from Devin Vassell in the third quarter. It was one of those games that you put on the backburner and forget about.
Power Rankings
John Schuhmann, NBA.com— 23 (last week: 23)
OffRtg: 113.7 (17) DefRtg: 116.5 (25) NetRtg: -2.8 (22) Pace: 100.0 (14)
The Spurs have dropped four straight games, with their worst loss of the season (to the Warriors by 42 points) coming on Sunday.
Three takeaways
1. This will be the third straight season in which the Spurs ranked in the bottom 10 defensively. They had one bottom-10 defense (2019-20) in the 25 seasons prior.
2. They had a worse-than-average defense (ranking 19th) at the All-Star break, when they lost Victor Wembanyama for the season. Since the break, they've ranked 29th defensively, with only the Sixers having allowed more points per 100 possessions. Overall, they've allowed 8.8 fewer points per 100 possessions with Wembanyama on the floor (110.0) than they have with him off the floor (118.8). That's the biggest on-off differential on defense among players who've played at least 1,000 minutes for a single team.
3. The Spurs lead the league in opponent free throw rate, having allowed just 20.0 attempts per 100 shots from the field. This will be the 18th time in the last 28 seasons that they ranked in the top five. They allowed just 14.2 attempts per 100 shots from the field in 814 minutes with Wembanyama, Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes all on the floor.
The Spurs are halfway through a stretch of four games in five nights that came about via a postponement from earlier in the year, but they'll have a rest advantage when they host the Magic on Tuesday. They won their first seven rest-advantage games of the season, but have lost two of their last three.
Brett Siegel, Clutch Points— 24 (last week: 21)
The San Antonio Spurs have seen some highs this season, as they rose inside the top 15 of the NBA power rankings at one point. Unfortunately, their season ended with Victor Wembanyama being diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in his shoulder and De'Aaron Fox undergoing finger surgery.
A lot of good things are in store for the Spurs moving forward, as their young core is under contract and another lottery pick will be heading to San Antonio.
Coming up: Tues. 4/1 vs. Orlando Magic (rescheduled); Wed. 4/2 at Denver Nuggets; Fri. 4/4 vs. Cleveland Cavaliers; Sun. 4/6 at Portland Trail Blazers
Prediction: 1-3 — This is a friendlier schedule than last week strength-wise, but I'm not thrilled with travel and time zone changes between each game. Both the Magic game — which should have been back on March 17 when the Lakers game was rescheduled to, robbing the Spurs of a break now — and Trail Blazers are winnable; it will just depend on if last week's version of the Spurs shows up or the explosive one from the week prior. The Nuggets and Cavs are scheduled losses, but this team isn't above surprising us.
