The San Antonio Spurs finished with a franchise record 67 wins this season. The team tied the 1985-86 Boston Celtics for the best home record in NBA history (40-1). If it wasn’t for the Golden State Warriors and their historic season, the rest of the NBA might be talking about the Spurs in 2015-16. The Spurs once again made the playoffs while resting their players and playing their brand of basketball. Because of all of these things, the rest of the league should be very scared of San Antonio in the playoffs.
The Spurs finished the regular season with the best defense in the league, giving up just 92.9 points per game on 43.6 percent shooting. In an era of three-point shooting teams, the Spurs are only giving up 6.6 three-point makes per game. The Spurs have gone back to playing defense the way they used to when they were a dynasty in the early to mid-2000s.
Their offense isn’t that bad either. The Spurs are in the top 10 (averaging 103.5 points per game), and they are the second-best three-point shooting team in terms of percentage (37.5 percent from three-point range). Their best player, Kawhi Leonard, is shooting 44.3 percent from three-point range, and he has become a star player in the league.
The Spurs also have a big man in LaMarcus Aldridge who has slowly started to acclimate himself to the system. Earlier in the season, Aldridge wasn’t playing like an All-Star and was being too passive. Now, Aldridge is averaging 18 points and 8.5 assists per game, and he will be the X-factor in the playoffs.
The road to the NBA Finals goes through the Warriors, but the Spurs are a still a threat. The Oklahoma City Thunder will stand in the Spurs’ way, but the Thunder don’t have the discipline or the defense to beat them. All of the Spurs’ strengths point to them dominating in this year’s playoffs.
