With four weeks remaining in the regular season, the San Antonio Spurs will be out to continue their methodical push up the Western Conference standings when they visit the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday in Inglewood, Calif.
Once six games behind the conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder and in fifth place at the start of December, the Spurs are 3 1/2 games back now and comfortably in second after distancing themselves from the remainder of the pack.
San Antonio is 17-2 since the start of February in its best extended stretch of the season. In Saturday’s 115-102 home victory over the Charlotte Hornets, Victor Wembanyama scored 32 points with 12 rebounds and eight assists. The latter total marked his second most in a game this season.
“It’s one more weapon,” Wembanyama said about setting up teammates for baskets. “My playmaking, most of the time, happens by rolling, not even touching the ball, and getting guys open by positioning. But I can (pass) too.”
The overall effort came after Wembanyama sat out Thursday’s 136-131 loss to the Denver Nuggets with right ankle soreness.
San Antonio’s impressive recent run includes a victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder that clinched the season series. But the Thunder have maintained their lead atop the standings while on an eight-game win streak.
The Spurs also have a 116-112 home victory over the Clippers during their current run of success, getting 27 points with 10 rebounds from Wembanyama on March 6. After Monday, the teams will face off one more time on April 2 in the L.A. area.
The Clippers are 7-2 this month to strengthen their grip on a play-in tournament spot in the West, but they are coming off one of their worst games of late when they fell 118-109 on Saturday at home to the lowly Sacramento Kings.
The Clippers struggled on defense for one of the few times since their midseason resurgence began on Dec. 20. Those issues showed even before Kawhi Leonard left the game for good early in the fourth quarter when he rolled his ankle.
Leonard still scored 31 points in the loss and set the franchise record with his 45th consecutive game of at least 20 points. But a long-term Leonard injury would be Los Angeles’ worst-case scenario realized.
The severity of the injury has yet to be determined, but the tweak happened to Leonard’s left ankle. A right ankle injury caused him to miss 10 games in November.
A return to good health in late December is what allowed Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue to turn Leonard loose to the tune of 29.9 points per game over his last 36 contests. In that time, Los Angeles went from a 6-21 record to its current 34-33 mark.
Lue preferred to view Saturday’s loss as just one of those nights.
“I thought we were flat, and I thought we got outplayed as well,” Lue said. “Both is a bad combination. But they played really well. … You’re due for a bad game. We did not play well, but they definitely outplayed us.”
The Clippers saw John Collins return Saturday after he missed the previous seven games with a neck strain. He scored 10 points with three rebounds in 20 minutes.
