How the Spurs’ upcoming schedule creates a championship-like challenge

A game against the Houston Rockets, with another one coming eight days later, continues what has been a tough stretch of the schedule for De’Aaron Fox, Stephen CastleVictor Vembanyama and San Antonio Spurs.

Fox says good teams hug each other.

“When you’re a bad team, you look at it like, ‘Oh, we’ve got to do all this and try to get to the All-Star break, have our break,'” the 2023 NBA All-Star told ClutchPoints.

“Anytime you’re trying to position yourself to have home field advantage in the playoffs, you don’t look at it that way,” Fox continued.

Game day

“When you’re a bad team looking at it, ‘Oh, we’ve got to do all this and try to get to the All-Star break.’ When… you’re trying to position yourself (for) home court (playoffs), you don’t look at it that way”⬇

-talked to De’Aaron Fox about it #Spurs current stretching pic.twitter.com/jOSDcH1SNV

— Hector Ledesma (@HectorLedesmaTV) January 20, 2026

Facing off against its rivals the IH-10, the The Spurs are second in the Western Conference. From December 23, they face three-time defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves twice. Those teams are ranked, in the order listed, first, third, sixth, second and fourth in their respective conferences.

“I mean, this is the NBA. We’re going to have stretches where you’re on the road for a while and you’re going to have stretches where you’re playing extremely good teams, or all the playoff teams at once. So look at it as a test,” Fox added in response to a question from ClutchPoints.

Spurs’ second goalscorer helped re-emerge a a proud franchise looking for its first playoff appearance since 2019. They are two years removed from 22 wins and won 34 games last season. They head into the Houston contest with 30 wins with 39 games remaining. Fox told ClutchPoints that success goes beyond results on the field.

“You don’t look at it like, ‘Ah, we’re going to be on the road,’ or ‘We’re going to play so many good teams in a row.’ It’s a test to see where you are during the year. And that happens especially at this time when teams are going to be broken, teams are tired, guys have been on the road for a while. See where you are as a team.”

Castle Stephon is keeping an eye on the position for once

A Spurs loss to the Rockets would move Houston within a losing streak of their Western foes. When San Antonio faced the Lakers at the start of this matchup against the competition, ClutchPoints asked star guard Stephon Castle if he was already keeping an eye on the standings.

“I didn’t know they were right behind us going into the game. Just knowing we were number two in the West, knowing we dropped a couple of games there that we should have won, just wanting to take it game by game and (we wanted to) make sure we came out with energy for this one,” the reigning Rookie of the Year replied.

Now the Rockets are hot on the heels of the Spurs. And while the Silver and Black have a picture of the playoffs in their heads, they’re not focusing on it. At least not yet.

“I think we all pay attention to it, but we don’t try to focus on it, if that makes sense.”