Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs are in the midst of a stretch in which they're playing four consecutive games against teams expected to make the playoffs – several of whom could make long runs.
Harrison Barnes sees the match-ups with the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder as a preview of what his team can expect to see come the second season.
“At this point in time, I think it's, ‘How do we instill the habits that we want to learn from those,'” the forward said.
Barnes then went beyond the aforementioned four-game stretch. San Antonio lost to the New York Knicks for the NBA Cup in mid-December before avenging the loss on New Year's Eve.
“We've been through that in the Knicks game. Both the Knicks games that we played were extremely physical. The first game that they beat us, they were the more physical team. The last time we came here, it was an extremely physical game,” the 33-year-old veteran shared following his squad's most recent contest, a 104-103 loss in Minneapolis.
“The OKC games that we played were extremely physical games,” Barnes noted, alluding to three meetings with the Thunder, all of which occurred in a 12-day stretch through Christmas Day.
“So, at this point in time guys have been in that, quote, unquote, ‘playoff-style atmosphere,'” the North Carolina alum continued.
“But I think for us, it's a matter of can we not repeat the same mistakes? If we're going to lose a game, it's going to have to be because we dictated on our terms that they did what we wanted them to do rather than it was just a breakdown or it was just a forgotten box-out or a forgotten X-out or things like that.”
Spurs in expanded stretch vs. NBA playoff teams
Two games after taking on the Thunder for the fourth time since December 13, the Spurs will host the same Wolves squad that just beat them for a second time this season.
Two games after that, San Antonio will face the Houston Rockets for the first of two battles in four games.
In all, the Silver and Black will have faced Oklahoma City (first in the West), New York (second in the East), the LA Lakers (just one loss back of the Spurs), Boston (third in the East), Minnesota (fourth in West) and Houston (two losses back of the Spurs) a combined 11 times in a month and a half.
“That's the stretch that we're in right now. Is this same lesson gonna keep showing up for us? And, if we don't pass the test, then that's going be the result,” Barnes revealed.
“Boston we win, (Minnesota), we lose. I think we take away some positive and some negatives from both games,” the former Golden State Warrior, Dallas Maverick and Sacramento King added.
At 27-12, San Antonio sits second in the West, though they've lost five of their last nine games as they continue through a stretch that features some of the league's best. It's a mark not lost on Barnes.
“I think that the controllables, we can be better at.”
