Scott Wachter-Imagn Images The Spurs’ January schedule looks daunting, but they’re off to a solid start. Welcome to the Week in Review: a Monday feature that looks back at the week that was for the San Antonio Spurs, takes a look at the week ahead, and more. Enjoy! Week 10: On their first extended road tip of the season across the week of Christmas, the Spurs played well overall but only went 1-3 due to mistakes in the clutch, issues closing out games, and a couple of near single-digit scoring quarters that were only prevented by miracle threes. Week 11: 2-1 (18-17, 8th in West) 122-86 win vs. Los Angeles Clippers Recap: The Spurs ended 2024 on a high note with a wire-to-wire in a blowout win over a Clippers team that as on the second night of a back-to-back. They owned the paint and fast break and led by as much as 41 despite having an off night from three. It was quite the way to ring in the New Year. What we learned 113-110 win @ Denver Nuggets Recap: In the first game of an away-home miniseries against the Nuggets, the Spurs overcame Denver’s infamous altitude used a strong second quarter to pull ahead before the Nuggets came rallying back behind MVP Nikola Jokic’s 41 points. The Spurs fought back with Victor Wembanyama’s 35 points and closed on a 7-2 run to seal the victory, overcoming their recent problems in the clutch and beginning the New Year on a high note. What we learned 111-122 OT loss vs. Denver Nuggets Recap: Returning home for the next night to complete the miniseries, the game followed pretty much the same trend as the night before, except this time, Denver came out on top. Wemby didn’t have as strong offensive game on his birthday, but the Spurs still made a good run in the third quarter to seemingly take control, only for the Nuggets to again storm back behind a monster performance from Jokic. While the Spurs were able to force overtime, they had nothing left in the tank as Denver overwhelmed them for the win. What we learned Power Rankings John Schuhmann, NBA.com — 15 (last week: 19) OffRtg: 111.5 (17) DefRtg: 111.9 (13) NetRtg: -0.5 (16) Pace: 99.2 (18) The Spurs are three games into a stretch where they’re playing nine of 10 against teams currently over .500, and they’ve handled themselves well thus far, going 2-1 with the loss coming in overtime to the Nuggets on Saturday. Three takeaways 1. Victor Wembanyama doesn’t yet have a go-to action for which the Spurs can get him a good shot on a big possession, and the clutch offense was pretty balanced (five guys attempting at least three clutch shots) as the Spurs played two nail-biters against Denver over the weekend. They scored just 23 points on 25 clutch possessions over the two games and have now lost four of their last five that were within five points in the last five minutes. 2. The Spurs rank second defensively over their last 10 games, creeping toward a top-10 mark for the season. The context is that six of those 10 games came against teams that currently rank in the bottom 10 offensively, but they were solid defensively against the Nuggets’ fourth-ranked offense over the weekend, holding Nikola Jokić under 50% shooting. 3. The Spurs have seen big improvement from last season regarding both opponent effective field goal percentage (both inside and out) and in opponent free throw rate. Over the first 50 seasons in which blocks had been tracked, the highest ratio of blocks/foul (for a player with at least 100 blocks) was Manute Bol’s ratio of 1.60 in 1986-87. Victor Wembanyama had a ratio of 1.66 as a rookie and is at 1.76 blocks per foul (116/66) this season, despite some foul trouble over the weekend. The only below-.500 opponent in this stretch where the Spurs are playing nine of 10 against teams that have winning records is the Bulls, who the Spurs will visit on Monday, the start of a four-game trip. Their loss to Chicago in early December came without Wembanyama and was one of the Spurs’ worst defensive games of the season. Brett Siegel, Clutch Points — 11 (last week: 15) How good are the San Antonio Spurs? As Wembanyama continues to grow, so does this team as a whole. A recent win over the Nuggets certainly builds confidence for the Spurs, and now they are just two games behind the Lakers and Mavs for the 5-seed in the West. Defensively, the Spurs are on the cusp of being a top-10 defensive team in the NBA, which is why they have reached a new season high in these power rankings. Should they pick up road wins over the Milwaukee Bucks and Lakers, the Spurs will move inside the top 10. Coming up: Mon. 1/6 @ Chicago Bulls; Wed. 1/8 @ Milwaukee Bucks; Sat. 1/11 @ Los Angeles Lakers Prediction: 2-1 — This week’s slate may look more daunting than it actually is as the Spurs kick off another four-game road trip. The Spurs should be out for revenge against a Bulls team that dropped 139 on them without Wemby a month ago, and while the Bucks and Lakers obviously can’t be slept on, especially in their own homes, they are still in the same tier as the Spurs and nothing close to the two teams that won the 2020 and 2021 NBA championships (even if they feature the same stars). I see the Spurs stealing one of those two games — more likely against the Bucks.