After beating the Warriors on March 11th and claiming first place in the West, the Spurs dropped games to Portland and Memphis and quickly returned to second place. Prior to the Kevin Durant injury, the Spurs never expected to get the one seed as the Warriors were on cruise control. Had Durant stayed healthy, the Warriors don’t lose five of seven games, and the Spurs would have been content resting and getting ready for the playoffs as the two seed.
But now, with 12 games left, including one head-to-head matchup with Golden State, the Spurs have to decide if they will go all-out to make up two games in the loss column.