From 0-2 to Five Straight: The Spurs' Fix Didn't Require a Wembanyama Takeover

Two games into the season, the Spurs looked like a team still digesting the Finals loss to the Knicks. Oklahoma City smothered Victor Wembanyama in a 116-104 opener, Houston followed with a 114-110 win in San Antonio, and the questions came fast: too much reliance on one superstar, a new starter disrupting the rhythm, legs heavy after the shortest offseason of anyone's career.

Five games later, those questions have quieted considerably. San Antonio sits 5-2 with a plus-9.3 point differential, sixth in the league in net rating (10.7), and third in the site's power rating at 9.52 — essentially flat week-over-week, which suggests the number is a stable read rather than a hot streak.

The defense is the engine. Wembanyama is averaging 4.0 blocks per game, comfortably the league lead (Chet Holmgren is next at 3.0), to go with 25.7 points and 10.7 rebounds. Over his last five he's at 28.6 points, 9.8 boards, 4.0 blocks and a plus-17.6, including a 43-point, six-block night in the 121-111 win over Minnesota. The team's defensive rating over the last five games is 104.6, and the recent three-game weighted mark is 102.9.

But the run hasn't been a carry job. The clearest evidence is Monday's 119-97 rout of Utah: Wembanyama scored 12 points on 5-of-15 shooting with five turnovers in 24 minutes, and the Spurs won by 22 anyway. That's the version of this roster the front office spent the summer building — the depth that has insulated them while the rest of the league deals with early-season injuries.

De'Aaron Fox is the quiet stabilizer. Over his last six, Fox is averaging 16.2 points and 6.3 assists on 56.9 percent shooting and 44.4 percent from three with a plus-13.3. That's career-best efficiency, and it matters because it's papering over real slippage: Stephon Castle is shooting 40.3 percent from the field and 31.6 percent from deep over his last six, and Devin Vassell is at 43.5 and 30.8. Three starters are down roughly four points in true shooting from last season, and Fox is absorbing the difference.

Dylan Harper has changed the math. The young guard is averaging 18.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.3 assists on 50 percent shooting and 39.1 percent from three across his last six, and the three-point-guard experiment looks less like a gimmick every week. His 17-point, eight-assist, seven-rebound line against Utah came in 27 minutes.

What still needs work. The Spurs are shooting 34.6 percent from three as a team (72-of-208), and Wembanyama is at 28.1 percent from deep over his last five. Keldon Johnson has been a non-factor off the bench — 9.2 points on 20 percent from three in 23.5 minutes — and Tobias Harris hasn't logged a game yet. The 5-2 record also came against a soft slate; the power rating's strength-of-schedule component is minus-0.3.

What's next. Dallas visits on Nov. 4 — San Antonio won 122-106 in Dallas on Oct. 24 — before a four-game road swing through Sacramento, Portland, Phoenix and Chicago, then a home date with Golden State on Nov. 13. That trip is the first real stress test of whether the five-game run is a correction or a coincidence.

For context on where the league stands on this team: Wembanyama is priced at +225 for MVP (30.8 percent implied) and -425 for Defensive Player of the Year (81 percent implied). Those are markers of expectation, not forecasts — and after an 0-2 start, the Spurs have spent five games looking like a team that intends to meet them.