NBA Power Rankings: Spurs Overachieving After 1st Week of NBA Season?
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The San Antonio Spurs are turning heads after a blowout loss on opening night.
Many people pegged the Spurs to be the worst team in the NBA this year after trading Dejounte Murray to the Atlanta Hawks and prioritizing development rather than contending for the play-in like the team has the past two seasons.
San Antonio's outlook placed them dead last in The Athletic power rankings at the beginning of the season. However, the 3-1 start has the Spurs jumping up four spots to No. 26 on this week's rankings.
Editor's Note: The Spurs improved to 3-1 on Monday night as they defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road. This could slightly change their ranking going forward. This article was written before the win against the T-Wolves.
"A very surprising start for the San Antonio Spurs," The Athletic writes. "Why? Because they won twice! We saw them get absolutely destroyed in the first game to a Charlotte team that isn’t very good and missing its best player.
"Beating Indiana in the Tank Bowl wasn’t a big surprise because one of these teams had to win. But they went into Philadelphia and left Sixers fans booing in the first week. The quartet of Keldon Johnson, Jakob Poeltl, Devin Vassell and Tre Jones has been really fun so far. Poeltl is going to yield a nice return for the Spurs if they trade him to a contender at the deadline."
It's going to be hard for the Spurs to keep this pace up, but the first week shows that San Antonio may not be the team everyone expected to be.
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