Spurs Travel to Golden State Seeking Tenth-Straight Win

The red-hot Spurs are heading to Golden State to kick off their final road trip of the regular season, and if they beat the Warriors it'll be their second 10-game winning streak in the last two months.

San Antonio is 25-2 since the start of February as they chase the Thunder for the league's best record and Victor Wembanyama makes his case for MVP. Steph Curry put a hurt on the Spurs when the Warriors came to town in November and he put up 95 points in 48 hours, but Curry is hurt and so are many of his teammates.

The Warriors are under .500, and the Spurs are now 14-1 on the season when facing a losing team on the road. Victor Wembanyama was vocal earlier in the year about taking care of business, and this young team has done a good job of that.

"I think the preparation piece is big," Mitch Johnson said earlier in the week. "I think that's also a nod to the staff. Last year we had times with a lesser staff in terms of the amount of people, and the attention to detail, and the details we are holding them accountable to this year is far greater, and they have stepped up in their development of that. And so that's a holistic complement to the staff."

Johnson wasn't too pleased with his team's focus and execution at the beginning of the previous game against the Bulls, but every night is another chance to get it right. Wembanyama put up 41 points and 16 rebounds in that one, recording one of the fastest double doubles ever. Afterward he spoke about upping his aggression on offense as the playoffs approach.

Curry is reportedly targeting a return against the Rockets next week to ramp up before a potential play-in game. Joining him in street clothes are Jimmy Butler, Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis, De'Anthony Melton, and Quinten Post. Gary Payton II is questionable, and so is Gui Santos who has been on a solid run since the All-Star Break.

On the San Antonio side of the injury report, Luke Kornet is the only rotation player out for the game citing right knee injury management. It could be a good opportunity for Mitch Johnson to give Mason Plumlee some minutes or tinker with rookie Carter Bryant as a small-ball center.

According to ESPN Insights, the Spurs are the first team in NBA history to win four consecutive road games by 25 points or more. Given the health disparity between these two teams and the way San Antonio is rolling, they may well become the first team to ever do it five times in a row.

"We've definitely grown in terms of, we had a lot of games early in the season, we were playing well, and we didn't quite put teams away," Johnson said. "For whatever reason, kept finding ourselves typically in more of a tight game late than going away from a game when we were up still, 10, 12, 14, 15, so I think there's growth there. That's probably just consistency in general. Part of that's probably understanding certain moments of the game where we need to really lock in and be focused and execute certain parts of the game in a certain manner."

Wembanyama is healthy and on track to hit the 65-game minimum for awards like Defensive Player of the Year, All NBA and MVP. He could miss three of the team's last seven regular-season games and remain eligible.

Any combination of nine Spurs wins and Thunder losses would leave the teams with even records and give San Antonio the top seed on account of the head-to head tiebreaker. If the Spurs go undefeated the rest of the way, they'll still need OKC to drop a pair of games. The defending champs have one of the toughest remaining schedules, with a pair of games left against the Lakers plus one each againmst the Nuggets, Suns and Clippers.

WHO:

Golden State Warriors, L3)
San Antonio Spurs (57-18, W9)

WHEN:

Wednesday, April 1 (Tipoff 9 p.m. Central)

WHERE:

Chase Center, San Francisco, California

HOW TO WATCH:

ESPN | FanDuel Sports Network

INJURY REPORT:

GSW:

Steph Curry (right patelloformal pain syndrome) - OUT
Jimmy Butler (ACL) - OUT
Kristaps Porzingis (illness management) - OUT
Al Horford (right soleus strain) - OUT
Moses Moody (left patellar tendon surgery) - OUT
De'Anthony Melton (left thumb strain)- OUT
Quinten Post (right foot injury management) - OUT

Gary Payton II (right knee injury management) - QUESTIONABLE
Gui Santos (right pelvic contusion) - QUESTIONABLE

SAS:

Luke Kornet (right knee injury management) - OUT
David Jones Garcia (ankle) - OUT
Harrison Ingram (two-way) - OUT
Emanuel Miller (two-way) - OUT