Spurs Welcome Suns to Town with Seeding on the Line
It’s not always the immediate consequences that have the greatest impact after a loss like the one the Spurs coughed up against the Pistons on Tuesday. Sometimes, the most crucial ramifications are delayed a bit.
The eighth-seed Phoenix Suns are in San Antonio tonight, winners of four straight and undefeated in the new year. The Spurs would do well to prevent a fifth consecutive victory if they’d like to maintain their current place in the standings. That loss the other night? Blowing that 18-point lead? Well, because of that, and because the Suns squeaked by the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, Phoenix would leapfrog San Antonio and grab the seventh seed with a victory this evening.
We have not reached the “must-win” portion of the season. There are far too many games remaining and much healthier days ahead (theoretically) to be screaming anything like that. But the Spurs do find themselves in a situation where every loss legitimately hurts. They’re 10 freaking games back of the first-place Warriors in the loss column, and they’re only three losses away from being on the outside of the playoff bubble — the Pelicans and Thunder right on their tail.
Oh yeah, that’s right. The Thunder, a gimpy but recovering fire-breathing dragon is STILL behind San Antonio. It’s enough of a problem that the Suns are getting hot, but now tack on the fact that Russell Westbrook is still running and dunking and screaming in the not-too-far distance, and you’ve got reason for concern.
Much like the Pistons before their trip to San Antonio, the Suns are on a tear over the last five games. Their offense is ripping off 1.118 points per possession during that stretch (per NBA.com), which would tie them with the Dallas Mavericks for tops in the league, and that three-headed backcourt of Eric Bledsoe, Goran Dragic, and Isaiah Thomas has really come alive in recent weeks along with Gerald Green and Markieff Morris.
As for the Spurs’ backcourt: It could use a healthy and active Tony Parker.
The All-Star point guard played just 13 minutes in the first half before Gregg Popovich deemed him unfit to proceed after the break. He looked hesitant and unsure of things — he did not look like Tony Parker. San Antonio needs him to be closer to himself in this one.
Detroit beat up on the Spurs’ front-court on Tuesday, knocking them over the head with Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe to the point Popovich had to simply sit Duncan on the bench. The Suns will be a different animal. They’re going to run and gun all night with shooters spread around the floor. Yes, the Pistons have also exhibited this tendency since Josh Smith was waived, but Phoenix does things a little differently. They just want to run you into the ground.
I honestly have no idea what to expect for tonight. In the past I would’ve said this is one of those bounce-back, explosive San Antonio games after an embarrassing loss. But this team has been so inconsistent and unpredictable that it’s impossible to look ahead and forecast anything. At this point, you just take things a game at a time and mark off days on your calendar until Kawhi Leonard returns.
Until then, there will be good nights and bad nights, instead of mostly great nights. The problem is, in the Western Conference, there isn’t even a ton of room for good games, much less bad ones. Wins aren’t an absolute necessity quite yet, but the amount of leeway is shrinking by each Leonard-less day.
