3 Ways the San Antonio Spurs can pull off an improbable play-in win

The San Antonio Spurs lost 10 of their last 12 and finished 33-39 yet are still in the same position as the Los Angeles Lakers at the season’s end. With the NBA’s improved iteration of the play-in tournament beginning Tuesday, a crazy season is about to get crazier.

The Spurs will be heading to Memphis for a loser-goes-home game to keep a potential playoff bid alive Wednesday evening at 7:30 pm ET on ESPN. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors will be battling for the seventh seed with the loser playing the winner of the Spurs and Grizzlies game to claim the eighth slot.

As the tenth seed, the Spurs have an extremely difficult uphill battle to climb, particularly without the services of one of their best two-way players in Derrick White. Still, events like the play-in tournament exist for the purpose of chaos and unexpected results, and the Spurs are capable of providing both of those any given night.

A few days ago, I wrote about which team matches up better with the Spurs between the Grizzlies and Warriors. While it seems like many don’t agree, I saw the deeper Grizzlies team as more of a threat than Golden State, who rely about 95 percent on Stephen Curry’s stellar play. Nonetheless, Memphis and its roster full of Spurs killers is on deck for an intense battle that will send one team packing.

Does this mean the Spurs are done for? Of course not. That said, they’ll need at least two of these things to go well to stand a chance at FedEx Forum.