Going into the 2025-26 NBA season, the San Antonio Spurs were projected to be a middle of the pack team, barely surviving over .500. With a week left in the regular season, the Spurs have a 59-19 overall record, winning 27 of their last 30 games. Led by MVP frontrunner Victor Wembanyama and former Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle, the Spurs are winning more than most deemed plausible.
The Spurs’ unprecedented success is driven by the team’s young core, elite defense and unselfish style of basketball. For the first time since 2019, San Antonio will make the postseason. While the team continues to dominate in the regular season, critics argue that lack of playoff experience will hurt the Spurs in any matchup. Despite the criticism, San Antonio remains unfazed. Wembanyama said last week, “We don’t have experience, right? Screw it.”
The Spurs sit as the second seed in a stacked Western Conference. Their first round matchups will be against whichever team emerges from the play-in tournament. Currently, the Phoenix Suns, Portland Trailblazers, Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors will face off to earn the last two spots in the playoffs. All of these teams are no strangers to the trials and tribulations of the postseason. Each team has a case to upset the young Spurs squad and send shockwaves throughout the basketball world.
The Suns are an older, more mature team compared to the Spurs. Superstar Devin Booker has led the franchise into the postseason several times and to a Finals appearance in 2021. During the regular season, the Suns went 2-2 against the Spurs, the best of any team in the play-in. A few Spurs’ pitfalls this season are turnovers and a stagnant offense when teams can protect the paint; the Suns excel in both. While a Spurs-Suns series would be competitive, the Suns do not have an answer for Wembanyama, and Castle’s defense could limit Booker’s heroism.
Few teams had a rougher start to the season than the Clippers. Riddled with scandal and injuries, the Clippers started the season with a record of 5-15. The Clippers have vastly improved since the beginning of the season. Kawhi Leonard, despite being under league investigation, has been playing some of the best basketball of his career. Outside of Leonard, the Clippers’ roster is stacked with veteran experience, which could prove fatal to the Spurs. How the Spurs will hold their own against an experienced team led by a multiple-time finals MVP will be a true litmus test of their playoff ability.
It is rare to see a team led by Steph Curry be seeded so low; the future Hall of Fame point guard has been a postseason mainstay for nearly a decade. There is no doubt the Warriors would be ranked much higher if not for a devastating ACL tear that ended Jimmy Butler’s season in January. Curry also suffered a knee injury, which sidelined him for 26 games. While the Warriors are currently on the outside looking in, few teams have spent as much time in the postseason as Curry and head coach Steve Kerr. Many critics argue that Wembanyama is too injury prone to survive the grueling playstyle of the playoffs. Former Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green will prove a tough matchup for the 22 year old. Whether or not Curry is still able to produce playoff miracles will be put to the test by the Spurs’ elite backcourt in De’Aaron Fox and Castle.
The Portland Trailblazers are the youngest team in the play-in. All-Star Deni Avdija has willed the Trailblazers to a record of 40-38. The Blazers lost their head coach early in the season to a gambling scandal. Since then, interim head coach and former Spurs player Tiago Splitter has kept the team afloat. Avdija is playing the best basketball of his career, and guard Shaedon Sharpe has been coming into his own as a second option. The up and coming team will need to play flawless basketball to have a chance at beating the Spurs, but in the NBA, anything is possible.
The San Antonio Spurs have climbed to the top of a stacked Western Conference far earlier than anyone expected. The young team is ready for any test the playoffs will throw at them. Any team that matches up with Wembanyama and company is in for a grueling series, and either of the four teams in the play-in has the ability to shake the basketball world with an upset.
