With the quarter-point of the NBA regular season in the rearview mirror and teams establishing themselves as championship contenders already, it’s worth pondering where Texas’ three franchises rank at the moment. Of the three, only the Dallas Mavericks are on solid playoff footing, sitting at 16-9 (.640) and atop the NBA’s Southwest Division. Houston is 13-10 and currently ranked ninth in the Western Conference and the Spurs are 4-21 and sputtering their way towards another lottery pick in 2024.
For fans of Gregg Popovich’s bunch, it’s worth wondering just how many NBA teams have been able to overcome such headwinds out of the gate to either reach the playoffs or at least come close to qualifying for the league’s 16-team tournament.
Utilizing SHRPSports.com, BetTexas.com used our Texas sports betting mindset and looked at how NBA teams that are the bottom 5 teams in standing on Jan. 1 finish out the season. Do they stay at the bottom, or should fans expect some improvement? We utilized data from the last 5 NBA seasons (2020-21 season eliminated due to COVID-19 schedule) to develop the data.
How Do Bottom 5 NBA Teams At Year-End Finish? (Since 2018-19)
Below you'll find some numbers that will be useful for future participants on Texas betting apps. These are the kind of stats that can give bettors an edge.
Can Spurs Snap NBA’s Bottom Five Blues?
Of the 26 teams that were in the NBA’s bottom tier on Jan. 1, only seven (or 26.9%) managed to avoid finishing the season in the same predicament. Of that group, only one went on to reach the NBA Playoffs, with the New Orleans Pelicans doing so in 2021-22, while 2019-20 was the only season in which the bottom five teams on New Year’s Day all stayed in one of those spots at year’s end.
This year, the Spurs' current .160 win percentage puts them dead last in the Western Conference, 8.5 games back of the No. 10 Phoenix Suns, who are currently the final team in the Play-In Tournament field. San Antonio is 7.5 games behind the No. 11 Golden State Warriors as well with 47 games to play, showing how far the franchise has to go to reach the postseason for the first time since the 2018-19 season. This is quite a fall since the Spurs won five NBA titles in 15 years.
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