Surging San Antonio Spurs look to keep focus as they host Phoenix Suns in NBA
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Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs dunking the ball during the 132-104 NBA win over the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center on March 17.
PHOTO: AFP
SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns have different goals for the National Basketball Association (NBA) season’s final stretch as they square off on March 19 (March 20, Singapore time) in a Western Conference game.
San Antonio (51-18) are second in the conference, 3½ games behind the front-running Oklahoma City Thunder and seven games clear of the third-placed Los Angeles Lakers with 13 games to play.
The Suns (39-30), meanwhile, are in seventh place, holding on to the top spot in the play-in tournament while being 2½ games adrift of the sixth-placed Denver Nuggets in the final guaranteed play-off spot.
The Spurs return home after winning two games in two nights against the Clippers in Los Angeles and the Kings in Sacramento, the latter a 132-104 walloping of the Kings on March 17.
San Antonio have won 19 of their past 21 games and continue chasing reigning champions Oklahoma City, who have the best record in the NBA, for top spot in the West.
Star man Victor Wembanyama said the team need to stay focused and not get ahead of themselves with the play-offs on the horizon. It will be San Antonio’s first trip to the post-season since 2018-19.
“It’s a lot of anticipating, but we still got to stay in the moment, attack 82 games of the regular season,” he said. “We can’t skip steps, but it’s definitely super exciting. We’ve still got 13 games. It’s very possible those last 13 games are satisfying or not; this is why we’ve gotta take each step at a time.”
The Suns have dropped three straight games, most recently a 116-104 decision in Minneapolis against the Timberwolves on March 17. Worryingly, they shot just 38.1 per cent from the floor.
“I thought our effort was fantastic,” Suns coach Jordan Ott said.
“We were just not able to quite get over the hump. We are at a point of the season when the intensity goes up. It feels like a play-off game... you could feel the pressure overall. It feels like play-off games, feels like play-off atmosphere, and feels like play-off physicality.”
Meanwhile in NBA action on March 18, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 20 points in three quarters as the Thunder raced out to a big lead and easily extended their winning streak to 10 games with a 121-92 road rout of the Brooklyn Nets.
Elsewhere, Luka Doncic flirted with a 40-point triple-double, LeBron James added 30 points while missing only one shot as the visiting Los Angeles Lakers claimed a 124-116 victory over the Houston Rockets.
Powered by 24 points by C.J. McCollum and 22 from Nickeil Alexander-Walker, the visiting Atlanta Hawks soared to their 11th straight win, taking down the Dallas Mavericks 135-120. REUTERS
