Marc Stein's brutally honest take on Spurs' title hopes should fuel them

By every metric that measures success in the NBA, the San Antonio Spurs are title contenders. To be honest, not many Spurs fans expected this team to be on track to win 60 games, but here they are.

San Antonio's emergence as a contender has shaken up the NBA's hierarchy and is a major threat to the defending champion, the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Silver and Black have already beaten them four times this season.

That adds more intrigue to a potential Western Conference Finals showdown between the two teams.

The Spurs are the most likely team to topple the Oklahoma City Thunder

If the Spurs and Thunder do square off in the NBA Playoffs, NBA insider Marc Stein believes that San Antonio is the team most likely to knock off OKC. He has a point; this Spurs team seems tailor-suited to disrupting the Thunder.

To the Thunder's credit, they have far more postseason experience, and that will likely result in them being favored in every playoff series. However, the Silver and Black might just be talented enough to make up for a relative lack of playoff experience.

What's so unusual about this team, aside from them being so young, is that their best players are improving in-season. Victor Wembanyama has seemingly flipped a switch over his last 10 games, averaging 28.4 points, 11.3 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks in just 30.2 minutes.

The Spurs' best young players could push them past OKC

Since February 1st, Stephon Castle has unexpectedly increased his three-point shooting percentage to 39.4% on 3.1 attempts per game. Meanwhile, Dylan Harper continues to be elite at finishing at the rim.

It's no wonder why the Spurs are 22-3 in their last 25 games and blowing the doors off teams. They've gone from very good to great because their best players are making big leaps as the season progresses.

If given another two months to improve, there's no telling how good this team will be if they are able to make the Western Conference Finals. That's what makes the Silver and Black the Thunder's biggest threat to a repeat.