It wasn’t long ago (December 31 actually) that the 55–26 San Antonio Spurs, who’ve won 11 straight games and are currently one win away from clinching in the second seed, were firmly entrenched in seventh position out west with a 19–14 record.
No one was talking repeat title back then—including me.
Back in December, Tony Parker was struggling through a hamstring injury and it showed. The 14-year veteran missed 14 games and his scoring average (14.2) and assists per game (4.9) are now the lowest they’ve been since he was a 19-year-old rookie during the 2001-02 season. It should be noted that he averaged 18.2 points per game in March as the Spurs started to heat up.
Even bigger than Parker’s re-emergence though has been the return of small forward Kawhi Leonard.
The 23-year old Leonard, who leads the team in scoring at 16.6 per game, missed 17 of 19 games from early January to mid-December, coinciding with the team’s slide.
He’s back and playing better than ever now, averaging 19.5 points per game since the beginning of March.
