Southwest Division

San Antonio Spurs Power Rankings - 2012-13

Power Ranking
WEEKRECORDRANKCOMMENT
Week 2458-226All that planning. All those efforts to try to ensure that the Big Three are healthy come playoff time, and look at 'em now. Amid six straight L's on the road -- unheard of in the Tim Duncan era -- Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili aren't near 100 percent and Stephen Jackson was waived without warning.
Week 2357-205The Spurs are the last team that'll ever whine about luck after winning the lottery twice in the space of a decade and coming away with David Robinson and Tim Duncan. But they can't be feeling super blessed right now with Tony and Manu ailing after all of Pop's efforts to protect them and Timmy.
Week 2255-182Amid this brutal stretch of schedule -- the Spurs face six top-10 teams in seven games, with two still left at Memphis and at OKC -- comes more brutality, if Manu Ginobili is indeed out weeks instead of days, as Gregg Popovich thinks. The committee (of one) is officially fed up.
Week 2153-173Since I know you want to be fully updated on all streaks, we can confirm that the Spurs still need 14 more home wins in a row over poor Golden State to tie the NBA record. The Dubs have lost their past 29 visits to the Alamo City, but the Kings went 0-for-43 on the road against the Lakers from 1975 through 1992.
Week 2051-162In a surprise to probably no one, after the Spurs were the season's first team to reach 30 and 40 wins, they were the first to reach 50 as well -- even without the injured Tony Parker -- and thus became the first to get to 50 first in three straight seasons since Boston in 1983-84, '84-85 and '85-86.
Week 1948-153Guess they were due for a night like Blazers 136, Spurs 106. Especially with Tony Parker just completing Week 1 of a four-week absence. San Antonio hadn't allowed that many points at home since a 161-153 win over the Paul Westhead Nuggets ... seven years before Timmy D showed up.
Week 1847-143The Spurs are 4-1 sans Tony Parker with only a loss to the Heat. So maybe, as Jeff Van Gundy predicted on TV, they'll do better without him than we all think. You know, though, that they'll be ultra-cautious and forfeit the West's top seed if they have to if TP needs more than a month to heal.
Week 1745-131Teams have to worry about something, but peaking too soon is all the committee (of one) can come up with. What else can you fret about when not a single injury or lineup shuffle has derailed them? Another 7-2 Rodeo Road Trip clinched a record 16th straight season with a winning road mark.
Week 1642-121The Spurs are in familiar territory with the league's best record. This time, though, they have a top-five D to fall back on when the offense slips, as well as Kawhi Leonard to pick up the slack with age dragging Manu away from Timmy and Tony. (Andrew McNeill, 48 Minutes Of Hell)
Week 1540-121The good news: For the fourth time in the Pop era, San Antonio is the first team to win 40 games. The bad news: Only one of the past seven teams to do so (Boston in 2007-08) reached the NBA Finals. The best news: Tony is playing the best ball of his life ... with or without Timmy and Manu.
Week 1438-111The Spurs launch their annual Rodeo Road Trip without Tim Duncan. No one in the Alamo City can moan too loudly, though, after TD survived that nasty fall with no structural damage ... and coming off a virtual bye week with only those cushy home games against the Bobcats and Wiz.
Week 1336-111Deeper and, yes, better than last season? That's what one Western Conference scout insisted in the latest Weekend Dime ... and it's hard to argue when the Spurs keep pounding everyone in their path no matter who's in or out of the lineup. Or in and out of the coaching box.
Week 1232-113Saturday night's road rout of Atlanta put a stop to San Antonio's 2-7 skid away from home after an 11-2 start on its travels this season. Last Wednesday's home rout of Memphis, meanwhile, made it a tidy 19 straight wins over fellow Southwest Division tenants at the AT&T Center.
Week 1129-113Allow me to play amateur team doc and suggest that Manu Ginobili's latest hamstring tweak didn't look too bad. Maybe more troubling for the Spurs, even though they've moved up to No. 4 in defensive efficiency, is how they're giving up eight points per game more on the road than at home.
Week 1027-93Gregg Popovich tells us over and over that there's no such thing as "happy" in the coaching universe. Yet surely there's some sort of emotion approaching satisfaction after seven straight wins by an average of nearly 19 points. Or the Spurs' rise into the top five in defensive efficiency.
Week 924-83The Spurs are about as healthy as they've been all season. But they are also in the midst of a four-games-in-five-nights stretch, which means we'll all be watching Pop to see how he handles rest for his vets. One answer we already have: Gifts are not on his agenda this time of year.
Week 821-84They've looked weary on the road lately, even after the spot of rest Pop infamously manufactured for his stars in Miami, but the Spurs still got to 20 wins before their 30th game for the eighth time in the past 12 seasons. Dallas is the only team close in the same span, having done so six times.
Week 719-64Maybe they still need one more rim protector to really go all the way. In the meantime? The Spurs are quietly back up to a very vintage Spurs-like sixth overall in defensive efficiency ... while Mr. Duncan threatens to become the first player EVER to average better than 17 and 9 this late in life.
Week 617-41Legend has it that the Spurs wait until their annual Rodeo Road Trip to really get going, but they've actually racked up 16 wins in their first 20 games for the sixth time in Gregg Popovich's 16 seasons. The only other coaches who can match that: Phil Jackson (seven) and Red Auerbach (six).
Week 514-41For maybe the first time in the Popovich/Duncan era, San Antonio might actually have the support of late-season NBA neutrals. All this drama is bound to have folks rooting for the Spurs like never before when their team bows out ... just to see David Stern have to hand Pop the trophy.
Week 411-32It seems reasonable to assume that the Spurs, even without Kawhi Leonard and Stephen Jackson, will arrive in Miami with a 5-0 record on their current six-game trip. Washington and Orlando are the next stops for a team that has (no misprint) won 27 of its last 31 away assignments.
Week 38-24Shredding Denver after their uncharacteristic late capitulation against the Knicks was a nice pick-me-up. The bigger deal for the Spurs, though, was seeing Manu start to look like Manu in that rout of the Nuggets. His bad back wouldn't let it happen against the Knicks and Lakers.
Week 26-11The elite team that changed the least is supposed to start off best, right? Yet you still have to be impressed by the Spurs after the first 4-0 launch in team history -- including their ABA days -- and with Tim Duncan looking roughly twice as good as he did early in the lockout-shortened season.
Week 13-02The best record you'll find in the standings is sufficiently eye-catching -- especially since Manu sat out the first two wins with a bad back -- and then someone points out what Duncan did in Week 1. Timmy's averaging 21 and 10 and 3 blocks? Those are turn-back-the-clock numbers.
Preseason0-02Came into the season thinking that the ceiling for the Spurs would likely be holding off the West's chasing pack headed by Denver and Memphis rather than playing at the Thunder/Lakers level. Now? OKC and L.A. look sufficiently vulnerable to get us rethinking.
Training Camp50-164Timmy, Manu and Tony don't get any easier to read with age. Who could have predicted the 20 games in a row they won or the four straight Ls to OKC after that brush with invincibility? Want to write the Spurs off after a summer of precious little change? Go for it. We'll pass.

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