On Saturday, the Seattle Seahawks ended an eight-year streak in which no defending Super Bowl champion had won a single playoff game the following season. There's no such track record of difficulty for NBA champions, but the San Antonio Spurs have started unexpectedly poorly a year after winning their fifth title under Gregg Popovich. At 23-15, the Spurs are only a half-game closer to home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs than they are to falling out of the postseason entirely.
Is it time to worry about San Antonio? Let's take a closer look, FAQ style.
How much are the Spurs really struggling?
Looking just at the standings, where San Antonio sits seventh in the West and 11th overall, may not be completely telling. The Spurs lost their first four overtime games of the season before beating New Orleans on New Year's Eve, and already have joined the 2005-06 Phoenix Suns as the only teams in the past five decades to lose a pair of three-overtime games, according to Basketball-Reference.com.
