The San Antonio Spurs haven’t discovered success on their street journey, shedding two-straight to the Milwaukee Bucks and the Chicago Bulls. In these video games, the Spurs have struggled offensively and allowed their opponents to harm them on the perimeter. Heading into the final leg of their street journey, they’ll be compelled to maintain tempo with the perimeter oriented Dallas Mavericks.
The Mavericks are some of the environment friendly offenses within the NBA (seventh in offensive ranking.) Led by Luka Doncic, the Mavs are scoring 119 factors and a sport and hitting 15.7 threes a sport. The Spurs have improved defensively since their first matchup with the Mavericks on opening evening, wherein they misplaced a detailed sport 126-119. The Mavericks are coming off the second sport of a back-to-back, shedding to the Houston Rockets on Friday evening. San Antonio might want to decelerate the Mavericks offensive assault in the event that they wish to snap their three-game shedding streak.
December 23, 2023 | 7:30 PM CT
Watch: KENS5 | Hear: WOAI (1200 AM)
Spurs Accidents: Charles Bassey – Out (left ACL,) Charles Bediako – Out (G League,) David Duke Jr. – Out (G League,) Keldon Johnson – Possible (low again)
Mavericks Accidents: Don’t must submit their lineup till 1 p.m. CT on December 21.
What to look at for
Discovering Wembanyama
After the Spurs loss to the Bulls on Thursday, followers took to social media to make enjoyable of San Antonio’s incapacity to search out their 7-foot-4 huge man within the paint. This tweet specifically made me snigger:
One would suppose that after all the scrutiny San Antonio’s ball handlers can be seeking to discover the massive man early and sometimes. Of their final matchup, Wembanyama began sluggish, however had a powerful fourth quarter. In the event that they wish to compete with among the finest groups within the west, the Spurs might want to contain their first general choose.
Slowing down Luka Doncic
The Mavericks star participant has a official MVP case this season. Doncic is averaging 32.7 factors, 9.1 assists and eight.4 rebounds on environment friendly capturing splits. He lit up the Spurs for 33 factors, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. San Antonio needed to double group Doncic within the fourth quarter and their protection couldn’t cease the remainder of the Mavs.
Doncic sat out Dallas’ final sport with Houston with a quad harm. If the star is able to play towards San Antonio, they’ll need to discover a approach to sluggish him down.
Handle the ball
The Mavericks should not an elite protection. They’re twenty third in defensive ranking, and bottom-three in forcing steals. San Antonio has an issue with unforced turnovers, which stifles any momentum the Spurs can get offensively. Dallas shouldn’t pose an issue turning the Spurs over, however San Antonio can’t shoot themselves within the foot with unforced errors – particularly with their lack of offensive firepower recently.
