Spurs’ White is finding his groove as playoffs near.

If basketball’s most electrifying 20-year-old doesn’t make the NBA’s new madefor-TV play-in extravaganza, its most mesmerizing 21year-old will.

Also possibly included in a couple nights’ worth of single-game Western Conference showdowns next month?

The most spectacular shooter in the history of the game.

The second-most-riveting long-range launcher of this era.

A Slovenian triple-double machine with an uncanny flair for dramatics.

And the team coached by the old man trying to ruin the show for everyone.

That’s the Spurs’ mission from here on out. They’d like to win enough over the next three weeks to keep Zion Williamson and his perpetually televised Pelicans out of 10th place. Then, once they’ve qualified for a play-in event seemingly made for the likes of Ja Morant, Steph Curry, Damian Lillard or Luka Doncic, they’d like to eliminate a couple of those guys, too.

See, this new format allows for a new version of spoiler. In the old days, the spoiling was done by bottom-dwelling teams that kept better teams out of the playoffs. Next month, the Spurs can do their spoiling by getting in.

They still have a long way to go, of course. And even if they hold off New Orleans to secure a spot in the play-in, they’re almost certain to be huge underdogs against whomever they face.

But that’s also what makes this fun — and especially appealing for a franchise with a history of celebrating TV executives’ misery. The Spurs, after all, did win three of the four lowestrated NBA Finals of the past 40 years. That didn’t bother them a bit, and neither will taking aim at some of the league’s biggest stars in May.

As an example of how this might play out, we can use the Western Conference standings heading into Saturday.

If the season ends with teams in that order, the play-in would begin with No. 10 San Antonio playing at No. 9 Golden State, and No. 8 Memphis playing at No. 7 Portland (Dallas is in danger of falling into this spot, but in this example will have wrapped up the No. 6 seed).

The Spurs would get 48 minutes to deal with Curry, who over the past few weeks (and, really, the past seven years) has produced a ridiculous barrage of jaw-dropping shot-making that has to be seen to be believed.

Can Gregg Popovich’s team coax him into one off night?

It might not be likely, and it might disappoint everybody outside South Texas, but it can happen. And if it does, the

Spurs would get a shot at the Portland-Memphis loser for the eighth seed.

Can you imagine if a Dejounte Murray-Derrick White backcourt ended the seasons of Curry and Lillard — depriving broadcasters of a series featuring either — with back-to-back upsets? In this scenario, the Spurs would have to win both games on the road, but considering the way they’ve played this season, that could work to their advantage.

The single-game format is a bit unfair, as critics including Doncic have pointed out. But people will watch, and it would be quite the twist if the Spurs, of all franchises, are the ones to capitalize on the unfairness. There’s probably no way they could outlast the Warriors, Blazers or Mavericks four times in seven nights.

But they can do it once. Again, this is not something any sane person would bet on. The reason people love watching performers like Curry, Lillard and Doncic is that they’re incredible in big moments. If the Spurs faced off with any of them in a loser-goes-home situation, there’s a good chance it wouldn’t be pretty.

And yet, in another season in which the Spurs have endured so much of the pain associated with rebuilding, and at a time when they’ve learned over and over again how much they need to improve to become a contender again, they’d love a chance. Even a date with any of the league’s most notorious late-game assassins has nothing but upside.

If the Spurs get into the playin and lose? First of all, it will be what everybody expected. Second, Murray, White, Keldon Johnson and others will be better for having experienced that stage, and those stakes.

And on top of that, they’ll still get another lottery pick.

Nothing wrong with any of that.

And if they win?

The party that was made for TV will have been crashed by the team that wasn’t. It won’t compare to winning a championship. But the Spurs might just discover there’s joy to be found in this kind of spoiling, too.

Billy Calzada / Staff photographer Television executives probably won’t be too happy if Dejounte Murray, Devin Vassell and the Spurs take out Stephen Curry and the Warriors in a play-in game.