Basketball’s Toughest Gauntlet: Victor Wembanyama’s 9-2 Spurs Rule a Loaded Southwest Division

Twenty-five minutes of floor time in Phoenix on Monday night was all seven-foot-four phenom Victor Wembanyama needed to detonate an opposing game plan, piling up 40 points, 11 rebounds, and nine blocked shots before resting the entire fourth quarter of a 122-96 rout. Riding nine consecutive victories, an unbeaten 5-0 road ledger, and a staggering +129 point differential, Mitch Johnson’s 9-2 San Antonio Spurs have seized command of both the Southwest Division and the NBA championship board.

No division in professional basketball comes close to matching the Southwest’s collective two-way ferocity entering Wednesday, November 11. Chasing San Antonio’s heels are Kevin Durant and Ime Udoka’s physical 8-3 Houston Rockets (+100 differential), Tuomas Iisalo’s glass-crushing 7-3 Memphis Grizzlies (+71) behind Cameron Boozer and Zach Edey, Dusty May’s surging 7-4 Dallas Mavericks (+51) led by 19-year-old sensation Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving, and Jamahl Mosley’s paint-dominant 4-7 New Orleans Pelicans.

Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox Turn the 9-2 Spurs Into Basketball’s Possession Machine

What makes San Antonio’s nine-game winning streak and 9-2 start (1,306 points scored versus 1,177 allowed, +11.7 per game) so sobering for Western rivals is that Mitch Johnson’s squad isn’t relying on unsustainable perimeter shooting variance. Ranking near league average in three-point accuracy (34.6%, 16th in the NBA), the Spurs instead crush opponents through historic possession math, paint pressure, and rim deterrence: San Antonio ranks third in the NBA with a 121.9 ORTG (offensive rating, points scored per 100 possessions) and seventh with a stingy 109.8 DRTG (defensive rating, points allowed per 100 possessions).

Flanking Wembanyama with blur-speed point guard De’Aaron Fox alongside downhill creators Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper collapses opposing shells on every pick-and-roll, generating 592 paint points (third in the NBA), an NBA-low 11.2% turnover rate, and a clinical 2.2 assist-to-turnover ratio. Defensively, Wembanyama anchors league-best totals in blocked shots (82, or 7.5 per night) and defensive rebounds (393) to fuel the NBA’s third-best overall rebound rate (55.2%). Even with Devin Vassell day-to-day (groin), veteran Tobias Harris working toward a mid-November debut from a calf injury, and rookie Jayden Quaintance out for the season, reserves Julian Champagnie, Harrison Barnes, Keldon Johnson, Luke Kornet, Carter Bryant, and Maliq Brown keep San Antonio humming entering Wednesday as -15 road favorites against the Chicago Bulls.

Kevin Durant Elevates Ime Udoka’s 8-3 Houston Rockets Into Championship Heavyweights

Only one game back at 8-3 (5-1 at home, 2-1 in division play, +100 overall differential), the Houston Rockets have fused Ime Udoka’s snarling defensive infrastructure with the three-level shot-making closure they previously lacked. Plugging 38-year-old forward Kevin Durant—who dissected Denver for 23 points alongside Alperen Sengun’s 20 in Monday’s 110-100 victory—between steady floor general Fred VanVleet, springy defender Amen Thompson, and 6-foot-11 Jabari Smith Jr. has produced top-ten efficiency on both ends: fifth in NBA ORTG (121.0), ninth in DRTG (111.5), fourth in TS% (true shooting percentage, accounting for twos, threes, and free throws) at 59.3%, and sixth in three-point accuracy (37.5%).

Remarkably, Houston ranks fourth across the NBA in both total rebound rate (55.0%, powered by a ferocious 34.0% offensive glass clip) and blocked shots (64, or 5.8 per game) despite missing traditional backup centers Steven Adams (calf) and Clint Capela (ankle) until roughly November 15. Udoka has seamlessly deployed small-ball frontcourts featuring Smith and relentless forward Tari Eason alongside veteran perimeter additions Marcus Smart and Bogdan Bogdanovic plus Reed Sheppard, Julian Phillips, Isaiah Crawford, and Quadir Copeland, positioning Houston as -6 home favorites Wednesday night against the Golden State Warriors.

Youth Supernova: Boozer & Edey Power 7-3 Memphis While Cooper Flagg Ignites 7-4 Dallas

Sitting third in the division at 7-3 (+71 differential) with an unbeaten 5-0 road record, Tuomas Iisalo’s Memphis Grizzlies have blended high-angle European motion screening with bruising interior muscle. Rookie power forward Cameron Boozer (22 points Monday in Toronto) and towering center Zach Edey anchor an attack alongside steady guard Ty Jerome (27 points in Toronto), Cedric Coward, Jaylen Wells, and bench veteran Jerami Grant that ranks first in the entire NBA in total rebound rate (55.6%), first in foul shooting (84.8%), third in three-point accuracy (38.6%), sixth in ORTG (120.8), and 12th in DRTG (113.5). Even with Scotty Pippen Jr. (back, late November), Quinten Post (concussion protocol), and rookie Richie Saunders (knee, December) out and Isaiah Stewart (knee) questionable—elevating Taylor Hendricks, GG Jackson, and Cam Spencer—Memphis enters Wednesday as a live +3.5 home underdog against the Denver Nuggets.

Half a game behind Memphis sits basketball’s other teenage phenomenon: 19-year-old forward Cooper Flagg, who just poured in 43 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists alongside Kyrie Irving’s 35 points Monday to lift Dusty May’s Dallas Mavericks to 7-4 (+51 differential, three straight wins). Promoting rugged defender Caleb Martin into the starting five beside Irving, Flagg, P.J. Washington, and center Daniel Gafford—with Max Christie, Zaccharie Risacher, Marcus Sasser, Santi Aldama, Moussa Cisse, and Naji Marshall off the bench—has made Dallas a genuine top-ten two-way unit, ranking ninth in ORTG (118.0), 10th in DRTG (113.2), fourth in two-point accuracy (57.0%), and seventh in rebound rate (53.0%) even while center Dereck Lively II rehabs a foot injury week-to-week.

New Orleans’s Dead-Last Defense and the Brutal Geometry of Southwest Matchups

Rounding out the Southwest at 4-7 (-54 differential, three consecutive losses), Jamahl Mosley’s New Orleans Pelicans illustrate what happens inside this division when elite rim pressure lacks half-court defensive discipline. When healthy around Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, dynamic young guard Jeremiah Fears, Saddiq Bey, Jordan Poole, and Bennedict Mathurin, New Orleans leads all 30 NBA teams with 644 points in the paint, ranks third in free-throw accuracy (83.3%) and steals (114), and posts the league’s eighth-best ORTG (118.7). Yet missing starting center Yves Missi (knee) since October 23 alongside Trendon Watford (ankle) and managing Trey Murphy III’s bilateral knee tendinopathy—leaving Karlo Matkovic, Derik Queen, and Malik Dia to battle inside—has cratered New Orleans to 30th (dead last in the NBA) with a 123.7 DRTG and 23.5 fouls per night entering Wednesday as steady -4.5 home favorites against the Brooklyn Nets.

Stacking all five rosters side by side highlights an extraordinary statistical reality: four of the five Southwest teams—San Antonio (+12.1 net rating), Houston (+9.5), Memphis (+7.3), and Dallas (+4.8)—currently sit inside the NBA’s top 10 in offensive efficiency AND top 12 in defensive efficiency, while all four rank inside the league’s top eight in total rebounding rate. Head-to-head division clashes this winter will hinge on live-ball turnover care and keeping centers out of foul trouble—two areas where San Antonio’s #1 turnover rate (11.2%) and sixth-fewest fouls (20.6 per game) outclass Houston’s 13.6% turnover clip, Dallas’s 14.2%, and Memphis’s 14.4%.

2026-27 Southwest Division Winner Prediction: San Antonio Spurs

Our official prediction to win the 2026-27 NBA Southwest Division is the San Antonio Spurs. Houston’s combination of Kevin Durant’s half-court shot-making, Alperen Sengun’s interior craft, and Udoka’s switching defense makes the Rockets a legitimate threat to win 55 games—especially once Steven Adams and Clint Capela return mid-month—while Memphis and Dallas both carry playoff-ready two-way profiles.

Even against that ferocious backdrop, Victor Wembanyama has shattered conventional NBA math. Blowing out Western foes regularly enough to log 25-minute nights while leading the league in blocks (7.5 per game), defensive rebounding, and ball security alongside De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper gives Mitch Johnson built-in regular-season rest insulation that 38-year-old Durant cannot match over eighty-two games. Once Devin Vassell and Tobias Harris join an already deep ten-man rotation, San Antonio will hold off Houston to claim the Southwest banner on its march toward April 2027.