A year after losing every one of their games in the NBA Cup, the San Antonio Spurs are on the verge of winning their group. Beat the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday and the Silver and Black will claim the West’s Group B. It’s that simple. They can still advance to the knockout stage of the NBA’s in-season competition with a loss, but they’d need plenty of help.
“All you’ve got to do is win a game,” veteran forward Harrison Barnes said.
San Antonio set their stage following a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers with victories vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz.
How the Spurs can win their group
A win in Arizona would move the Spurs to 3-1 in Group competition of what’s officially titled the Emirates NBA Cup. Concurrently, it would knock the Suns down to 2-2. The Thunder could also improve to 3-1 with a victory vs. Utah on Tuesday, but San Antonio owns the tie-breaker with OKC by virtue of winning their aforementioned head-to-head tournament match-up. The best the Jazz can finish is 1-3 while the Lakers have completed Group play with a 2-2 mark.
“I think it’s important for our young group just as we continue to play in these bigger games,” Barnes continued. “Can we come up with a game plan? Can we be in those moments where we need to get a stop or we need to get a basket or we need to execute this play?
“I think those things are big for us. Just to even have that opportunity next game against a good Phoenix team will be a good challenge for us.”
At 11-9, the Spurs have won five of their last six games. It equals their best start through 20 games since the season after the “Bubble.”
The Spurs can also advance to the knockout stage of the competition as the conference Wild Card. But several things would have to go their way. With a loss to the Suns, they’d need the Thunder, Portland Trail Blazers, Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets to all lose.
An NBA Cup contrast from last year
A member of the West’s Group C in last year’s inaugural NBA Cup, the Spurs lost to the Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves, Golden State Warriors, and the Thunder. At 0-4, their Cup play ended at that point.
Barnes was asked if this second-year competition where the next stage is single elimination can help prepare a team for the playoffs.
“In general, when a team has an opportunity to make it to the postseason or to have a shared experience like that, it just fast tracks the maturity,” Barnes added. “There’s one thing to talk about winning, to talk about playing in the postseason, playing in big moments, but you just have to honestly go through it. And there’s no other way to do that but to do that. I think for us that’s the motivation.”
Each player on the NBA Cup champion earns more than half a million dollars with a sliding pay scale down to the quarterfinals where each player will get more than $50k.
Still, according to Barnes, for the young Spurs, the experience is more valuable.
“That’s the goal. Obviously, coming into the season no really predicted us to do much and that was fine. But, our focus has always been just to get it game by game, lock this thing down, and just continue to get better.”
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