The Spurs end with the NBA’s worst defensive figures in 30 years...
The Texans became the first team to ship over 10,000 points in a single season since the Nuggets in 1990-91.
The Spurs have had a season to forget. With a record of 22 wins and 60 losses, they finished the regular season bottom of the Western conference, tied with the Houston Rockets. Making matters even worse, San Antonio hit a milestone last seen in the NBA over 30 years ago. Gregg Popovich’s side conceded 10,092 points during the course of the regular season - the first team to end with a five-figure defensive record in a single season since the Denver Nuggets conceded 10,723 points in 1990-91.
Despite the 138-117 victory over the Dallas Mavericks in their last game (a dead rubber as The Mavs had nothing left to play for), the Spurs’ deficiencies at the back were in evidence once again - shipping +100 points in a game for the 77th time since the season started in October (Onlt five games did they manage to concede less than 100: versus the Pacers, Jazz, Nets, Bucks and Timberwolves). The 117 points conceded against Luka Doncic and Co. took them past the 10,000-point mark, a limit which hadn’t been surpassed in more than 30 years. The San Antonio Spurs are the seventh team to achieve this disastrous figure. The Seattle Supersonics having the dubious honour of being the first in 1967-68.
The Texas team finished with the worst defensive rating of the season (119.6 points per 100 possessions ) - in addition to conceding an average of 123.1 points per game, the worst defense in the NBA by a long distance; worse than the Pacers, the second worst (119.5). In attack, things weren’t much better. They finished the regular season in 29th position in the offensive rating (109.7 points scored per 100 possessions).
Unlike the statistics of the five-time NBA champions, the 1990-91 Denver Nuggets were the most productive offensive team , with 119.9 points per game, but they allowed 130.8 every night, an historical figure.
Spurs’ best player of the season was Keldon Johnson who had a great year - 22 points and 5 rebounds on average for the former champion at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games with Team USA. The big news was Tre Jones and Jeremy Sochan. The guard, brother of Tyus, a Grizzlies player, finished with an average of 12.9 points and 6.6 assists while the Polish rookie finished with 11 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.
San Antonio’s horrible year ends with the hope of getting the number 1 in the next Draft and, consequently, that Victor Wembanyama will change the destiny and history of the franchise. Finishing with the second-worst record (the first being Detroit at 17-65), they are 14% eligible for the No. 1 pick in the 23 June draft.