Spurs: 5 Things We Want to See in Last 10 Games

2. We want to see defensive intensity

This goes hand-in-hand with point one, but the Spurs need to play much better defensively down the stretch. There's no reason a team starting Devin Vassell, Dejounte Murray, and Jakob Poeltl should be in the bottom third of the league in defensive rating (21st).

Ahead of Tuesday's games, the Spurs were giving up the 6th-most points per game in the league at 113.6. At the start of the season, this club was expected to at least be in the top half of defensive metrics when considering the roster.

While their biggest issue of not having a mobile big to defend pick and rolls can't be addressed until this offseason, I still see no reason the Spurs should be surrendering so many points to close out the season. I'd love to see renewed energy and ability to guard man-on-man from someone like Devin Vassell, who's dropped off a bit since becoming a starter.

If San Antonio can climb their way up the defensive rankings even a little bit before April 10th, I'll be happy.

3. We want a battle of the Joshes

Sunday's win over the Golden State Warriors was easily Josh Richardson's best game on the San Antonio Spurs, as he scored 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Joshua Primo, who started for the sixth time this year, also had some nice plays and contributed 11 points after struggling for a few weeks.

While we can expect guys like Murray, Poeltl, and Johnson to show up on a nightly basis, it would be nice to see either Josh start to carve out a role as a reliable performer in these last 10 games.

At 28, Richardson has embraced his role as the veteran and mentor of the group. "It's been a blessing to be able to come out here and compete with these guys," he said after his big game. In the absence of Doug McDermott, he's played beautiful basketball with an increased role.

Meanwhile, Primo is only beginning his journey in San Antonio as the youngest player in the league and is already someone who Coach Popovich just said: "will be a hell of a player."

Considering they're at opposite spectrums of their career, it'll be interesting to see if either or both can build on their recent performance to make a case for being more prominently featured next season.