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The San Antonio Spurs are currently on a four-game winning streak, which includes a recent victory against the best team in the NBA currently, the Golden State Warriors. What’s impressive about this streak is the way they managed to win these games. Two of these games were blowouts, where they defeated Washington by 17 points and Portland Trail Blazers by 31 points.
Results from the last 4 games
a. Spurs @ Warriors – 112-107
b. Spurs @ Trailblazers – 114-83
c. Wizards @ Spurs – 116-99
d. Celtics @ Spurs – 96-88
During the off-season, the Spurs parted ways with all their veteran players such as DeMar DeRozan, LaMarcus Aldridge, Rudy Gay, and Patty Mills, who had been with the team since 2012. It was evident that they pulled the trigger to rebuild around their young promising core of Dejounte Murray (now the longest tenured Spur), Derrick White, Keldon Johnson (the Olympic gold-medalist), Lonnie Walker IV, Devin Vassell and Jakob Poeltl.
Dejounte Murray, one of the contenders for Most Improved Player, is having a career season averaging 19.1 points, 8.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists a game along with 2.0 steals, leading the team in three of the four categories. But outside of him, the contributions from others in scoring have been inconsistent. A notable and consistent characteristic of Spurs basketball this season has been their ball-movement. Coach Pop’s emphasis on sharing and moving the ball is known around the league and that’s been the highlight of Spurs basketball this season, as they average 27.5 assists per game (2nd in the league, only behind the Warriors).
Some interesting statistics that show the impressive ball-movement of the Spurs:
a. Leads the league in the percentage of assisted three-point field goals made (94.3%)
b. Fourth in the league in the percentage of assist two-point field goals made (54.1%)
Dejounte Murray has been getting support from Derrick White, who managed to find form after a poor start to the season. White has been averaging 19.5 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 5 APG, 1.5 SPG and 1 BPG during this short but promising win-streak.
The team’s record may not paint the real picture but most of their games have been very close against the top teams in the league, thanks to Dejounte’s leadership and contribution in clutch time. But if Derrick White continues to play with this consistency and other young players provide the support that Dejounte needs, the Spurs might just win more games and knock on the door to the play-ins.
