Last-Minute News, Rumors, Reports before Spurs vs Warriors

The San Antonio Spurs started this season 0-2, and they have not lost since. Ten straight wins for the team right now, the best in the NBA. But tonight, Golden State walk into San Antonio without their superstar Stephen Curry, and a rookie on a team that says he has to start thinking like an alpha dog. Yaxel Vandenbergh also says he has a plan for Victor Wembanyama. Shoot as many threes as he can and bait him into helping. But the Spurs have their own problems. De'Aaron Fox and Devin Vassell are both listed as questionable. Tobias Harris stays out. So can the Spurs make it 11 straight games? A lot of numbers say absolutely they can. Health is undoubtedly playing a massive role in this game for both teams. Let's start with the Warriors. Steph Curry has an oblique injury. Only lasted six minutes in Houston before he left. He's out reportedly only two weeks with the oblique tear. But this is the same thing Damian Lillard played through a while ago. And that was something that... Ended up needing surgery later. So we'll see how long Steph is out. But regardless, he's definitely out for tonight. This guy who scored 25 points in 21 minutes against New Orleans, who's averaging about 30 points a game at age 38, a guy who tends to kill the Spurs, is not out there. So it's a bit of a sigh of relief. But of course, we hope he gets better. To keep going down the Warriors list, Brandon Williams is out with a hamstring. Moses Moody is out with a knee. And Kristaps Porzingis, well, we kind of know what happened with him. Jimmy Butler is actually playing a G League game tonight in Santa Cruz, which is pretty interesting, but he will not be going up against the Spurs. But this Warriors team has been good. An 8-4 start. They started 0-3, actually, then won five straight, just recently lost to Houston. And again, having these guys not available for this game against San Antonio is going to make it a lot tougher for them. But the Spurs also have some guards that are a bit banged up. But we have to start with the obvious. Tobias Harris out with the Cavs. Jaden Quaintance still not cleared. No surprises there. But the two names that matter a bit more are De'Aaron Fox with his left hip soreness, which is something that's come back, right? This is like multiple times this year. Anyway, and Vassell with a left adductor. Vassell's best games of this 10-game win streak were 21 points at Utah, including a lot of them late, and 19 versus Sacramento. He scored 7 and 10 in the two losses before that. Fox has played in all 10 games of this streak. He's averaging only 13.7 points and 5.8 assists, but his efficiency has been great. Great. His ability as a floor general has been very well. Welcome. So his status moves the lineup a lot as well, especially considering who you thrust in there to be that fifth starter. But if you think the Spurs can still get to 55, 60 wins, be the one seed, you can trade it on Kalshi where $25 nets you a decent amount. This video is brought to you by Kalshi. We are trading against real users, not the house like traditional sports books. You're buying yes or no contracts on real life events like politics, like the weather, like your San San Antonio Spurs, like Victor Wembanyama winning. If Vassell and Fox are both out, I have to wonder if a guy like Kelvin Johnson maybe gets the call to come into the starting lineup alongside Julian Champagnie. There are a lot of guys that could, Harrison Barnes, but I think it'd probably be Kelvin and Champagnie, but you'll just have to wait and see. So how do these teams match up? What is Golden State going to look like without Curry? Because the Warriors are scoring 119.3 points per game this year. The Spurs are scoring 119.2, basically equal footing on offense, but there's a much bigger gap on defense where San Antonio is allowing only 108 points a game while the Warriors are allowing 111.5. That makes the Spurs plus 11.2 a game, the Warriors plus 7.8, and a lot of Golden State's margin comes from one night when they beat the New Orleans Pelicans by 51. Curry has also been a bit banged up this year, missed a game against Phoenix, missed a game against the Clippers. The Warriors are so far one and one without him in the lineup. But if you look at that Clippers game, Yaxel Vandenbergh put up 37 points on a night that Steph Curry sat. Plus, the Warriors this year only have one loss by double digits. That was by 22 points at the hands of the Lakers. But their other loss is three to Memphis, nine to Phoenix, seven at Houston. And without Curry tonight, Golden State's going to lean on Vandenbergh, Draymond Green, and whoever Steve Kerr can find in the middle. Now, there are a lot of talented players on this team, but no doubt without Curry, the gravity changes a whole lot. This is a thin group, and the Spurs have the better defense and the better player. A 10-game win streak just means the Spurs are that much closer to reaching 60 wins. Being the number one seed in the NBA, I'm so excited for it. There are a lot of big games coming. It's also worth looking at how the Spurs have won these 10 games. Again, we talk about it all the time, but those two first home losses were tough. But the bounce back after that from the whole team, Wemby included after that 1-for-13 game against the Rockets, that's what really matters, right? The bounce back after some of the adversity. Wemby is now averaging 32.6 points over this 10-game win streak, and the average margin of victory is 15 points a night, including a 27-point win over Sacramento and a 26-point win over Phoenix. And by the way, a lot of these wins could be bigger if our guys weren't sitting late in the fourth quarter. With that said, as we know, a couple of the games were close, beating Dallas by just one in Wemby's historic night, an overtime win against Utah, 117-111. But still, the Spurs Spurs are dominating most of the teams that they should be beating. Over Wemby's last five games, he's put up 52, 30, 29, 40, and most recently 32 points, which is 36.6 per night. And San Antonio, of course, is 5-0 in those games. Behind him, Dylan Harper is averaging 17.8 points over the last two games. He had his first regular season double-double with assists. He did some in the playoffs, but that was his first regular season one against Chicago. It's been impressive. And even with Stephon Castle only averaging 12.9 points per game, putting up zero against Minnesota, four at Phoenix. He still had a high impact on this team. The plus minus is good. The defense is still all world level, and I would expect him to bounce back very soon. Plus, you know, not all these games are complete blowouts from the start. Like the Spurs were down by quite a lot against Chicago. Had us in the first half, and they ended up winning that game late. It was only by five, but the Spurs managed to have a massive point swing. Like it was crazy to watch that second half and how this team managed to fight back. That 18 to three run in the third completely turned that game. And against Golden State, The problem is a hole like that's a bit harder to climb out of than a game against Chicago. But if the Spurs can get out to an early lead in this one, the Warriors, without their superstar, are going to have a very tough time clawing back themselves. But a lot of that does hinge on how Jaxson Vendeborg plays. He went 11th in this year's draft. He's averaging 21.7 points per game in 12 games. Probably the frontrunner for rookie of the year right now. Seven and a half rebounds, almost four assists a night. 52% from the field, 43% from three. He's been very good. He put up 37 against the Clippers on six of 11 from three. He scored 25 against Houston on Wednesday. He was the Summer League MVP. And in his first eight regular season games, he already had two. 30 pieces. He's been really, really good, if you can't tell. Draymond even said that Jaxson could be the best player on the floor regardless of the team, and Steve Kerr said he has changed them dramatically. Durant called him a skilled big who can play every position and left a signed jersey at his locker after that Houston game. Pretty interesting. And now he wants Victor Wembanyama. He said he would shoot threes to bait Wemby into helping and hoping for kickouts. This is a rookie. Telling you to your face his plan before the game. And it's been hilarious because he actually does this a lot. He just says whatever he's thinking and I kind of like it. But it also tells you what he is worried about, which is Wemby protecting the rim. I mean, we can put the numbers side by side, Wemby versus Yaxel, and I think we all know who's going to come out on top in pretty much every single category, I guess, except assists. Yaxel does have the edge there. But then Wemby, of course, is averaging 4.4 blocks a game during this win streak. He had eight against Phoenix, eight against Dallas. So that rim protection worry is, yeah, I mean, it's something that you absolutely should be worried about if you're an opposing team. A lot of the scouting says that Jaxson Hayes kind of lives a bit on pick and roll and elbow isos. So those are two spots where Wemby's going to have to decide whether or not he wants to leave the paint. And we're going to have to monitor what he does on these plays. There's also a bit of history between Golden State and the San Antonio Spurs. Last November, the Warriors beat the Spurs twice, 125-120 and 109-108. We remember those. Curry scored a combined 95 points in those 46 and then 49. But he's not walking through the door tonight. That's the thing, right? The Warriors have beat the Spurs. They tend to get the best of us when Steph Curry is playing. Not to mention, Wemby was good as well in both those games. 31-15 in one of the games, 26-12 in the other. It just didn't quite matter. But since then, the Spurs have won both games in San Francisco. One in February, one in April. Fox scored 27 in that February win. Castle had 11 assists on April 1st. And again, without Steph tonight, although we might be without Fox, the guards are going to be able to hopefully put on a bit of a show. Side note, April 1st, Wemby also had 41-18, so Curry was also out for that game. Anyway, we're hoping for something similar. And I believe that win back then against the Warriors was the Spurs' 10th straight at that time, so we've been pretty much exactly here against the Warriors before. Across the four matchups last year, Wemby averaged 31 points and 13.5 rebounds, so he's not scared of the Warriors. The question is whether Golden State has anyone who can make him pay for helping. We know Draymond has tried his best, but I think it's going to be a lot harder this time. The first answer is also pretty simple, and it's something I think Wemby will adhere to, and that's don't chase the bait, right? Like, Yaxel is making 2.43s a game at a high percentage, but I don't know if Wemby's going to be matched up directly with him, right? Like, that's the thing. Like, you can kind of just afford to move around at your own pace. You try and maneuver your defense so that Wemby doesn't have to make this choice to go out to the perimeter. Like, to me, that's, I get it. I get the game plan from the Warriors, but I think Wemby's too smart to fall for whatever they're trying to game plan for. I also think the start of the game is going to matter a whole lot. The Spurs have gone 10-0 over this stretch, but we did trail by like 20-plus in Chicago, and Golden State is not Chicago. So coming out strong and not getting behind is going to matter a whole lot. Another really important thing, the final one I'll mention here, Fox and Vassell. We got to see if they're going to be healthy. I'd love to get at least one of them for this game tonight. Yes, you could beat the Warriors without both of them, but if they're even injured just a little bit, you might want to just scrape by without them if it is better for the long-term health of these guys. Some of the numbers to watch, if Fox plays, watch his minutes. He's averaged almost 30 minutes a game across the streak, like a lot of Spurs starters. But without Curry in there, you wonder if he can't just kind of go crazy, go to the rim, be kind of the focal point of the Spurs offense. Also, you got to watch Yaxel, of course, he's talked about it. We're going to talk about the three point shooting. If he gets to three or four threes made, the Spurs, I don't know if we'd be in trouble, but you know, we ideally don't want to give that up. And finally, my boy, Dylan Harper, watch him. is ready to put on a show. This is, I mean, could you argue he's the best guard in this game tonight? Is he better than Fox and Castle already? I mean, I think so. He's also had eight or more assists three times during the streak. He's fresh off 10 assists against Chicago. So if you want a playmaker, especially if Fox is out, he could be in for a massive, massive game. After this one, the next game is against a struggling Utah team. It's a team that the Spurs have already beaten a couple times. So this 11th straight win tonight, if we get it, it sets up a big chance at 12. Win tonight, we're at 11. That's what matters though. Utah on the road on Sunday, Detroit at home on Tuesday. Not an easy schedule, but I'm excited for it. My call, big win. Spurs make it 11 straight. I think this is just going to be similar to the Phoenix game. I think we're just going to put them out of their misery kind of early in this one. I think the Spurs are just going to get out. Do what they need to do. No Curry, no Butler, no Moody, no Williams. I think the Spurs are just going to be able to go out there and kind of get to their spots. Not sure how they're going to stop Wemby. Yeah, Yaxel's probably going to get his. He's a great player, but I think the Warriors supporting cast is maybe a bigger question than whether Yaxel is going to kind of put him on their back or not, because I think he's going to try his best, but I just don't think the rest of the Warriors are going to be able to keep up. So comment down below who you think is going to be the Spurs' best player tonight. Will it be Wemby? Will it be Harper? Maybe Castle? Will Fox play and be a high-impact player? Let us know down below.