There will be playoff fever and intensity aplenty when the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder square off on Thursday at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, and that's a good thing.
The game is especially crucial to San Antonio's playoff hopes and its chance at continuing its run of 20 straight trips to the postseason. The Spurs (43-32) have lost two straight, most recently 116-106 on the road Tuesday to Washington in a game that was not as close as the final score indicates.
If the playoffs started today, the Spurs would be in the sixth seed in the Western Conference.