SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns have different goals for the NBA season’s final stretch as they square off on Thursday (Friday morning, Singapore time) in a Western Conference game.
San Antonio (51-18) are second in the conference, three games behind front-running Oklahoma City and 7 1/2 games clear of the third-placed Los Angeles Lakers with 13 games to play.
The Suns (39-30), meanwhile, are in seventh place, holding onto the top spot in the play-in tournament while three games in back of sixth-place Minnesota for a guaranteed spot in the playoffs.
The Spurs return home after a winning two games in two nights against the Clippers in Los Angeles and the Kings in Sacramento, the latter a 132-104 walloping of the Kings on Tuesday.
San Antonio have won 19 of their past 21 games and continue chasing Oklahoma City, the league’s defending champion who have the best record in the NBA this year, for the top spot in the West.
Star man Victor Wembanyama said the team need to stay focused and not get ahead of themselves with the playoffs on the horizon. It will be San Antonio’s first trip to the postseason since 2018-19.
“It’s a lot of anticipating, but we still got to stay in the moment, attack 82 games of the regular season,” he said. “We can’t skip steps, but it’s definitely super exciting. We’ve still got 13 games. It’s very possible those last 13 games are satisfying or not; this is why we’ve gotta take each step at a time.”
The Suns have dropped three straight games, most recently a 116-104 decision in Minneapolis against the Timberwolves on Tuesday. Worryingly, they shot just 38.1 per cent from the floor against Minnesota.
“I thought our effort was fantastic,” Suns coach Jordan Ott said.
“We were just not able to quite get over the hump. We are at a point of the season when the intensity goes up. It feels like a playoff game... you could feel the pressure overall. It feels like playoff games, feels like playoff atmosphere, and feels like playoff physicality.”
Meanwhile in NBA action on Wednesday, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 20 points in three quarters as the Thunder raced out to a big lead and easily extended their winning streak to 10 games with a 121-92 rout of the Brooklyn Nets in New York.
Elsewhere, Luka Doncic flirted with a 40-point triple-double, LeBron James added 30 points while missing only one shot and the visiting Los Angeles Lakers claimed a 124-116 victory over the Houston Rockets.
Powered by 24 points by CJ McCollum and 22 from Nickeil Alexander-Walker, the visiting Atlanta Hawks soared to their 11th straight win, taking down the Dallas Mavericks 135-120. REUTERS