On April 2, the NBA regular season ended a focus battle, the Spurs home to the Blazers, this game is very critical for the Spurs aimed at impacting play-off tickets, they withstood the pressure at home, leading by 5 points in the first quarter, 23 points in the second quarter, and the advantage at the end of the first half widened to 28 points. In the second half, the Spurs withstood the pressure and continued to extend the score advantage to successfully win. As a result, the Spurs have won 5 of their last six games and have been very strong.
Spurs' strong performance reflects the lakers' despair, to know that the spurs and lakers have the same record before the game, ranking 10th and 11th, behind the 9th place Pelicans 2 wins, it is clear that the Spurs and Lakers are the main opponents for the play-offs, both teams are left 6 games, and will not meet directly in the next. In this case, the Spurs first beat the Blazers, while continuing the recent good state and performance, will directly throw the pressure to the rival Lakers, and the Lakers have lost 8 games in the past 10 games, the performance is sluggish, and will directly fight with the Pelicans, the Spurs are equivalent to winning and then reaping the benefits of the fisherman.
Spurs' next schedule: re-Blazers, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Warriors and Mavericks;
It can be seen that the Spurs' next schedule is still relatively easy, in addition to fighting the Blazers, other teams are ranked higher than the Spurs, but the Nuggets have great hopes of locking in the top six, while the Timberwolves rank seventh, and the hope of going straight to the playoffs is slim, the gap between the Warriors and the Lone Ranger is not large, basically determining the promotion to the playoffs, just have the need for card slots, but compared to the Spurs in the "moment of life and death", it is obvious that the stronger desire to fight is Popovich's team.
During the impact play-offs, the Spurs' determination was great, relying on a wave of four consecutive wins to give themselves the initiative to impact the top ten. Although the loss to the Grizzlies and the winning streak were terminated, we saw popovich's team in the game full of desire to fight, crazy counterattack in the last quarter, if it were not for Murray's deadly layup, the Spurs would most likely continue to win consecutively. Now with a big win over the Blazers, it's clear that the team's goal is very clear, which is to win more and impact the play-off qualification.
The Spurs were once far from the top ten in the West, seeing no hope, and with the Lakers dropping the chain and their strong performance, the Spurs seized the opportunity. Most importantly, having won five of the last six games, the Spurs, who are not the strongest in their own right, have seen their confidence and morale rise, which is critical during the impact of the playoffs.
So I also look forward to the next performance of Popovich's team, they have the strength and opportunity to squeeze out the Lakers, get the play-off tickets, and then need to continue to be in good shape and seize the opportunity.