It’s time for Basketball: Spurs at Jazz

Welcome to the game thread. Veterans of the Game Thread know how we do things around here, but for all you newbies, we have a few rules. Our community guidelines apply and basically say be cool, no personal attacks, don’t troll and don’t swear too much.

The Spurs play their third game in the NBA Cup tonight against the Jazz, who they have already met three times this season. Tonight should be the last meeting between Utah and San Antonio, unless they somehow end up meeting in one of the two games that will be added for teams that don’t make the knockout rounds. The Spurs play their fourth and final NBA Cup game next Tuesday against the Suns, and must win both tonight and next Tuesday to have a chance to advance to the knockout rounds, which start on the 10th-11th. December, the semi-finals in December. 14, and finals on the 17th. Teams that do not advance to the knockout rounds will play their matches in the same week as the knockout tournament.

Even if they win both remaining Cup games, the Spurs will likely need some of the teams ahead of them in the wild card standings to lose, or they will need to run up enough points to overcome the Mavericks’ 40+ point advantage in point differential.

OK, that’s a lot of exposition for what is just a regular season game against one of the worst teams in the league, who the Spurs have already beaten twice out of their three meetings. The Spurs won both games in San Antonio, and Utah won a one-point squeaker at home on Nov. 9, 111-110. The silver and black are currently on a three game winning streak and if they win tonight they could get their first four games since March 28, 2022.

On paper, the Spurs should easily roll over the thinking Jazz, but with Collin Sexton and Lauri Markkanen, they have enough talent to beat the Spurs if they aren’t at their best. This is the first night of a back-to-back for the Spurs facing Lakers tomorrow, so they’ll want to put the Jazz away early and try to get some extra time off for the starters for tomorrow’s contest against a playoff contender.

Playing with Pounding the Rock:

Marilyn Dubinski, JR Wilco and Jacob Douglas will stream the game and interact with PTR readers on Playback. It’s just another way to enjoy the game, then join us there or in the discussion thread. Or do both.

Game Prediction:

Mitch Johnson will replace Keldon Johnson after KJ misses a defensive rotation.

A final word:

Go Spurs GOOOOOO!!

San Antonio Spurs at Utah Jazz
November 26, 2024 | 8 p.m. CT
Streaming: NBA League Pass
TV: Fanduel Sports Southwest

Reminder: That’s it against the site’s policy to post links to illegal streams in the comments, but it’s not against site policy to exchange email addresses, for example.