The San Antonio Spurs' greatest vulnerability is their own injury report.
They've dealt with a revolving door of ailments through the first quarter of the season and now the reigning NBA champs begin arguably the most grueling 10-game, all-Western-Conference stretch any team will face this season.
And they'll do it without knowing when their All-Star point guard will be back or if their Finals MVP can stay in. Or even how many of those games coach Gregg Popovich will allow his geriatric power forward to play.
Welcome to the end of 2014, where the Spurs' starting lineup will continue to be a nightly game-time decision. That includes tonight's game at Portland where Tim Duncan (rest), Manu Ginobili (low back contusion), Tony Parker (hamstring) and Tiago Splitter (calf) will all sit, according to the team.
Ginobili and Splitter, who had just returned from an extended absence to play in three games, hit the injured list just as Parker returned to it with a nagging hamstring before Sunday's 99-91 win at Denver. At least Kawhi Leonard was able to make a somewhat unexpected return from a hand injury to get the Spurs that badly needed win.
"There's still a lot of pain in there," Leonard said of his right hand on the FOX Sports Southwest postgame show following a monster performance anyway of 18 points, eight rebounds and career highs in blocks (six) and steals (five) after sitting out the previous two games.
In its previous three games, San Antonio (17-7) sustained ugly losses to Utah on the road and to the Los Angeles Lakers at home. A third loss to a West team out of the playoff picture would have really put a sour taste in the Spurs' mouths heading into this stretch.
So just how grueling is this 10-game sprint to the new year? It consists of seven opponents with a combined winning percentage of .644. Five teams are at least nine games over .500. And even that is deceptive because Christmas Day opponent Oklahoma City is 11-13 in the standings, but 6-1 since Kevin Durant rejoined Russell Westbrook.
New Orleans is the lone opponent under .500, but the Pelicans are no pushover. They beat the Spurs in San Antonio last month.
Check out this week alone: tonight at Portland followed by two at home against Memphis on Wednesday and the Trail Blazers on Friday, and then at Dallas (without Duncan?) on Saturday. The remainder of the stretch unfolds like this: vs Los Angeles Clippers (Dec. 22), vs. Oklahoma City (Dec. 25), at New Orleans (Dec. 26), vs. Houston (Dec. 28), at Memphis (Dec. 30) and then back home against New Orleans again on New Year's Eve.
Three of the games are the second of a back-to-back, which immediately puts into question Duncan's, and also Ginobili's (even before this injury), availability for each of those games.
Of course Popovich doesn't coach for December and January, but rather for April, May and beyond. Not even a Western Conference playoff race that resembles the NASCAR Cup Chase with seven high-revving outfits running bumper-to-bumper is likely to alter his strategy now.
The Spurs enter tonight's game in fifth place in the West and third in the Southwest Division, 1.5 games behind Houston, which finally welcomed Dwight Howard back over the weekend, and 2.5 games behind Memphis. San Antonio is 4.5 games behind West-leading Golden State.
Through 24 games last year, the Spurs were 19-5, just two games better than this season with all the injury issues. The big difference though is last year they already held a 3.5-game cushion in the division and were one game back of Oklahoma City for second place in the conference and two games behind Portland for the No. 1 seed.
Finishing third in their own division would eliminate homecourt advantage in the first round.
You won't hear the Spurs talk about it, especially in mid-December, but even they know home court, if only in the first round, is important, with last year serving as a prime example when they blew out Dallas in Game 7 in the first round in front of the home crowd.
Yes, with 58 games to go it is early to begin talking about homecourt advantage. But in this conference, making up ground can be dicey, even when teams go through injury issues as the Rockets showed by going 8-3 without their All-Star center.
So for a Spurs team that doesn't know when it's All-Star point guard will return, will hope its Finals MVP can fight through the pain, has added its invaluable sixth man to the injured list and knows it's ageless power forward will likely sit some, this 10-game stretch will be fascinating to watch.
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