The San Antonio Spurs are not the best team in the NBA, but they are clearly the biggest threats to the reigning champs.
The San Antonio Spurs are 38-16 through the All-Star Break, good for the second-best record in the Western Conference and the third-best record overall. Led by All-Stars De'Aaron Fox and Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs are expected to charge into the postseason for the first time since 2019.
Entering the 2025-26 campaign, the Spurs were playoff hopefuls who--at best--would avoid the play-in before meeting up with the Denver Nuggets or Houston Rockets in the first round.
The Spurs have smashed those expectations, instead emerging as title contenders, if not frontrunners.
Thanks to their dominant 4-1 record over the Oklahoma City Thunder this season, the Spurs have finally gotten their flowers.
Spurs Top Western Conference Ranking
The Spurs might be behind the Thunder in the standings, but they are officially the best team in the Western Conference, at least according to The Athletic.
For the first time in 11 months, the Thunder are not leaders in the clubhouse, as both the Spurs and Detroit Pistons have topped them. Detroit, just two years removed from the longest losing streak in NBA history, is now the top-ranked team in the league, and Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, and JB Bickerstaff are coming off All-Star tournament wins.
Could the NBA get a small-market showdown in the Finals? Would the Spurs and Pistons see a rematch of the 2005 championship? Both teams have had some lean seasons in recent years, although they embraced the rebuild, the losing, and the process, and it paid off.
While The Athletic is all-in on the Spurs, betting platforms don't seem so sure. The Spurs are third in Finals odds, behind the Thunder and Nuggets, and the Pistons are all the way down at seventh, behind Conference rivals like the Cavaliers, Celtics, and Knicks.
While the Spurs and Pistons are both young teams on the rise, the fact that journalists seem to be totally enamoured by them is telling. Keep in mind, odds shift as people place bets, so the sportsbook can turn a profit. It's not wholly influenced by which is the best team.
For us at Roundtable Sports, if the Thunder don't win the West, it will be because they fell short against the Spurs in the playoffs, who are quickly emerging as their biggest threat.