Spurs' five-game winning streak sets them apart from rest of NBA

The Spurs' 119-97 victory over Utah at the Frost Bank Center on Monday night hiked their winning streak to five games and gave them six different winning streaks of five-plus games over the last two seasons, most of any NBA team.

For the players who survived the back-to-back 22-win seasons in 2022-23 and 2023-24, it's quite an achievement.

"It's just a testament to pounding the rock," eighth-year forward Keldon Johnson said after finishing with 15 points and seven rebounds, both season highs for the reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year.

"We continued to pound the rock (in those lean years). We continued to stay with it, and the tide turned. We just got to continue to build on those habits we have started. And every day keep coming in and putting our time in, putting that effort in, locking in and getting better each and every day."

Along those lines, Johnson believes the defending Western Conference champions have a long way to go until they hit their stride this season.

"Not comforting at all," Johnson said of the winning streak. "It's a long season, 82 games. We got to continue to get better. Do I feel as though we're playing to our standards? At times, yes. But do I feel like we could do better? Yes. I feel like we have a lot of room for improvement. I feel like we have not yet played our best brand of basketball and we just got to continue to stack days."

New York and Oklahoma City each have five different winning streaks of five-plus games over the last two seasons to rank second behind the Spurs, according to Elias Sports.