NBA failed to decipher the booming message the Spurs sent from game one

Over the past few weeks, Spurs fans have likely heard some form of surprise expressed from folks in the basketball community about all the success the team has had this season. Those people are clearly forgetting how San Antonio opened the campaign. The signs that destruction could possibly lie in their wake for the next six months were presented opening night.

The Spurs' message should have been clear as day

Some might say the 125-92 massacre in Dallas, Texas, to start the year was just one game in a long season, but it was much more than that. It was the beginning of a reckoning. We know that Dallas isn't a great team now, but they've also been riddled with injuries, and this was them at their healthiest.

Victor Wembanyama took one of the largest frontcourts in the league, boasting guys like Anthony Davis, PJ Washington, and Dereck Lively II, and made them look like they were playing a different sport. It had to be embarrassing watching the Alien put up 40 points, 15 rebounds, and 3 blocks while only taking two three-point attempts the entire night.

That's a generational talent showing what he can do with a few offseasons of training, though. His emergence should have been expected. They didn't pay attention to the rest, though. Stephon Castle had 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists, while Harper dropped 15, 4, and 2 off the bench in his NBA debut. The rook shot 50% on 14 attempts, and San Antonio's second-year star shot 66%.

The Slash Bros didn't stumble out of the gates one bit. As a matter of fact, Harper was so impressive early this season, people thought he might have an outside shot at Rookie of the Year despite coming off the bench. Castle's playmaking was so incredible that when you combined it with his stout defense and constant highlight reel finishes, we wondered if he would end up on the All-Star team.

San Antonio got off to a hot start and kept pace all season

The offense was nearly flawless against the Mavericks, and De'Aaron Fox had yet to take the court since he was set to miss the first eight games of the year. It was a sign of things to come. They followed that display up by rattling off four more consecutive wins to establish the best start to a season in franchise history. The Silver and Black won three of those games by double digits.

Oh, the signs were there. Of course, I'm not discounting how special their run has been since the start of February, but they had a 67% winning percentage before that month began. The Spurs have only lost back-to-back games a small handful of times because their entire season has been full of big-time victories, winning streaks, and overall impressive performances.

The postseason will be difficult. It's eat or be eaten, and every team plays both prey and predator. But we shouldn't be surprised if they dominate games against the elites just like we shouldn't have been surprised when their winning kicked into a higher gear as soon as they got a chance to forge a little chemistry with their entire roster intact. They were telling us how serious they were from the jump.