The Spurs are on the road, down two starters, and coming off one of their most grueling games of the season. Add in that Manu left the Cavs game holding his back and you have what could amount to a rocky start to a four-game east-coast swing.
Luckily, their next stop will be at last-place Brooklyn, who has five less wins than the next-worst team in the league. After a decent start to the year, the Nets have floundered, finding themselves in their own corner of NBA irrelevancy, where winning is hard and losing doesn’t improve their long-term outlook, thanks to a lack of draft picks.