For the primary time in franchise historical past, the San Antonio Spurs will play a win-or-go-home NBA Cup recreation. After going 3-1 in group play, with spectacular wins over the Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets, the Spurs will tackle the star-studded Los Angeles Lakers within the quarterfinals. They’ll accomplish that with out their famous person massive man, Victor Wembanyama, who continues to be not able to return from his calf pressure, formally listed as out for the competition.
These groups regarded considerably totally different the final time they performed. The Lakers had been with out LeBron James and Austin Reaves, whereas the Spurs had Wembanyama, however no De’Aaron Fox. Their final matchup was a weird slog that included 66 fouls, wherein the Lakers simply squeaked out a 118-116 win. As he routinely does, Luka Doncic punished the Spurs with 35 factors, 13 assists, 9 rebounds, and 5 steals. Now he’ll have the assistance of Reaves and James because the Lakers look to make an NBA Cup push.
This isn’t the primary time within the Cup that the percentages have been in opposition to the Spurs. They had been the underdogs to make it out of their group, which featured groups with official title aspirations. Nevertheless, San Antonio hasn’t been taking part in the identical degree of basketball as they did throughout group play. They’ve had two third-quarter meltdowns in a row in opposition to the Cleveland Cavaliers and New Orleans Pelicans. They’ll want all fingers on deck for all 48 minutes in the event that they wish to advance to the NBA Cup semi-finals.
December 10, 2025 | 9 PM CT
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Spurs Accidents: Harrison Ingram – Out (G League), Jordan McLaughlin – Questionable (hamstring), David Jones-Garcia – Out (G League), Victor Wembanyama – Out (calf), Riley Minix – Out (G League)
Lakers Accidents: Maxi Kleber – Questionable (Lumbar)
Maintaining with the Lakers’ offensive tempo
Los Angeles is among the most harmful offenses within the league. They’re loaded with expertise and have a legit three-headed monster in Doncic, Reaves, and James. The Lakers are sixth in offensive score, scoring 118.3 factors per recreation. Nevertheless, they’re twentieth in defensive score, which has been their greatest flaw this season. And not using a true rim protector and a few lackluster defensive guards, Los Angeles has allowed groups to attain 116 factors per recreation. This is probably not a recreation the place San Antonio can cease the Lakers, however relatively sustain with them offensively. We may see a shootout in Los Angeles on Wednesday evening.
Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson stated he has been upset in how his crew has come out of the halftime break this season. After two video games wherein San Antonio gave up 40+ factors within the third quarter, one would anticipate a greater effort in a win-or-go-home contest. Whereas going through a deadly Lakers’ offense, there might be no room for disastrous defensive stretches. This gained’t be like the sport in opposition to the Pelicans. San Antonio can’t afford to have one other “turd quarter.”
For a lot of the Spurs roster, this might be their first actual “playoff” expertise. The prize isn’t the prospect to win an NBA title, however relatively to take house some chilly, arduous money, $500K to be actual. There may be a lot on the road for this younger crew with one thing to show. Will probably be fascinating to see how this group performs in an elimination recreation. Fox, Luke Kornet, Kelly Olynyk, and Harrison Barnes convey some playoff expertise to the desk, however the remainder of the crew hasn’t sniffed an vital postseason NBA recreation. This might be an opportunity for Spurs followers to get an early glimpse of how this crew might play when the video games actually matter.
