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It was another trying week for the San Antonio Non-displaced Metacarpal Fractures (name change still pending league approval), who lost Kawhi Leonard for three to four weeks on this play against OKC. Leonard joined Danny Green and Tiago Splitter as fallen starters, and his injury has had PATFO scrambling for healthy bodies. D-League call-up (and not-a-Civil-War-general) Othyus Jeffers is the newest guy to don the black and silver, after playing 10 minutes in yesterday's loss to Miami.
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Overall it was the team's first losing week of the season, as they dropped games to the Thunder and Heat and defeated the Hawks in Atlanta. For now, though, the record doesn't seem to be that big a concern and, as Spurs fans find themselves getting more familiar with the human anatomy by the week, there is a slight fear that the losses of the young guys will put an additional strain on the seasoned bodies of Tony, Tim and Manu.
With the losses and Kawhi's injury, it's no surprise to see San Antonio drop in most rankings this week. Still, most experts around the blogosphere aren't too worried about either in the long run. They know the team will eventually get back to full health and that Pop can keep them competitive until then.
This week's schedule includes the last stretch of home games before the Good Guys take off for their annual Rodeo Road Trip. They'll travel to Houston on Tuesday and then play the next two at the T.
Marc Stein from ESPN, (Spurs rank: 5, last week's rank: 4)
Just crazy numbers everywhere you look here. The Spurs are 1-10 against teams in the top seven in terms of winning percentage, 32-1 against everybody else ... and play zero home games between Feb. 3 and Feb. 26 with three key rotation guys (Leonard, Splitter and Green) all out injured.
Marc J. Spears from Yahoo! Sports (Spurs rank: 5, last week's rank: 3)
After Sunday's loss in Miami, San Antonio has only two big wins this season: Beating Golden State while the Spurs' three stars were sidelined; and a victory over the Los Angeles Clippers without Chris Paul.
Jason Patt from SBNation NBA (Spurs rank: 5, last week's rank: 3)
The Spurs suffered another tough injury blow, losing Kawhi Leonard to a broken hand for several weeks. San Antonio will surely chug along fine without Leonard, but things weren't pretty against Miami on Sunday.
USA Today (Spurs rank: 3, last week's rank: 2)
You can take away all of their starters. Gregg Popovich still will find a way to win.
John Schuhmann from NBA.com (Spurs rank: 4, last week's rank: 3)
The Spurs are down another starter (Kawhi Leonard broke his hand Wednesday) and are now 1-10 in games against the other six teams over .600 after losses to the Blazers, Thunder and Heat over the last 10 days. The only win was against the Clippers in their first game after Chris Paul's shoulder injury. The last game they play against that group before the All-Star break is Tuesday in Houston.
Matt Moore from CBSSports.com (Spurs rank: 5, last week's rank 5)
Oh, no. They lost to the Heat. How will they recover? Guess their season's over.