San Antonio Spurs: Gregg Popovich is doing it again as an underdog
How dangerous are the San Antonio Spurs?
When thinking of championship contenders in the Western Conference, there are three that currently sit above the rest. The Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Lakers and LA Clippers have been in a tier of their own this season. However, there’s one team in the West that should be garnering more attention than they have been getting – the San Antonio Spurs.
Perhaps the Spurs might not be championship contenders this season, but they could emerge as a team that could create havoc in the playoffs in a first or second-round series against a higher-seeded team.
At the moment, nearly halfway through the 2020-21 NBA season, the Spurs are 16-11 and in sixth place in the West. Interestingly enough, the Spurs are just one game in the loss column out of the second seed.
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Over the last month, the Spurs have been even more impressive. In the team’s last 11 games, the Spurs are 8-3 and have risen up the West standings. Over that span, the Spurs are tied with the Brooklyn Nets for the third-best record in the league and have a top 10 defense.
The biggest reason for San Antonio’s turnaround from last season to this season has to be credited to not only Gregg Popovich’s job as the team’s head coach but also the emergence of Dejounte Murray and Keldon Johnson.
The team’s young duo is having career-years (individually) and is averaging 30 points, 14 rebounds, and seven assists per game as a duo. That contribution, on top of another great season from DeMar DeRozan, has the Spurs as one of the most underrated teams in the West.
San Antonio has done all this with LaMarcus Aldridge in and out of the lineup this season and with potentially the team aligning themselves as potentially making a move at the NBA Trade Deadline that could help them during their playoff push.
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The Spurs may not have the big names that we were used to seeing in their heydays, but this team is growing into possibly the most dangerous team in the West that no one seems to be talking about. Once again, it’s Gregg Popovich leading the charge.