Advanced model updates title chances for San Antonio Spurs

Since Greg Popovich's first full season at the helm in San Antonio, the Spurs have been a fixture in the NBA playoffs. San Antonio has made the postseason 22 times in a row and has won five championships under their esteemed head coach. However, as the NBA looks to restart its season, Popovich and the Spurs have some serious work to do to keep the streak alive.

The Spurs are currently 12th in the Western Conference with a 27-36 record and are four games behind the Memphis Grizzlies for the final playoff spot. And that's going to be a pretty steep hill to climb for a team that hasn't won more than three games in a row at any point this season and just lost Lamarcus Aldridge for the rest of the season to shoulder surgery.

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That puts an enormous amount of pressure on DeMar DeRozan to carry the scoring load for San Antonio. DeRozan is averaging 22.2 points per game this season and shooting 52.6 percent from the floor, but he'll likely be forced to take 20 shots or more per game down the stretch and he'll need to maintain that efficiency to give the Spurs a shot to close the gap.

Even then, San Antonio will also need more supplemental scoring from Bryn Forbes, Patty Mills, Derrick White, Dejounte Murray and Rudy Gay. They'll also need Jakob Poetl to step into a starting role and to defend the rim while giving more occasional offense.

Ultimately, it's going to be an uphill battle for San Antonio. So can Popovich rally the troops and keep his postseason streak alive? The SportsLine Projection Model has simulated the remainder of the NBA season 10,000 times and released its conference title and NBA championship odds for all 22 returning teams.

The Spurs are currently have the 11th-best odds to win the Western Conference at +30000 according to William Hill. However, the model predicts that they win the West in less than 0.00 percent of simulations. Meanwhile, San Antonio is tied for 19th-best NBA title odds at +75000 and are winning the championship in less than 0.00 percent of the model's sims.