The San Antonio Spurs simply can’t catch a break this week.
It began with getting throttled by the Brooklyn Nets on Monday, adopted by a collapse within the last minute to lose to the New York Knicks on Wednesday. Thursday, the crew launched that Devin Vassell goes to be out indefinitely whereas he will get a process executed on his left knee. In dealing with the Detroit Pistons 121-109 for a win on Friday evening, San Antonio (13-26) misplaced Keldon Johnson within the first half of the sport with a hamstring damage that the group has but to offer an replace on. Now on Saturday, they full the back-to-back with the Boston Celtics who personal the most effective file within the NBA at 27-12. Spurs vs Celtics ideas off at 5 p.m. CT on the AT&T Heart in San Antonio with Boston favored by 13 factors.
Spurs vs Celtics Recreation Data
When: Saturday, January 7, 2023Start Time: 5 p.m. CTLocation: AT&T Heart – San Antonio, TexasSpurs TV Channel: KENS 5Spurs Radio Broadcast: 1200 WOAI AM (English) / 1350 AM KXTN (Spanish)
Recreation Odds
*Odds are topic to vary
Moneyline: Spurs (-900) | Pistons (+625)Over/Beneath: 234 (-110)Unfold: Celtics -13 (-105)
Spurs vs Celtics Harm Report
Each the Spurs and the Celtics enter Saturday’s contest with little motion on the damage report. The one participant out for Boston as of the morning is Danilo Gallinari (knee) who continues to overlook time as he has since earlier than the season. For San Antonio, Vassell (knee) isn’t coming again anytime quickly as he’s scheduled for an arthroscopic knee process subsequent week that may maintain him out indefinitely. Johnson’s sport standing is but to be decided concerning the hamstring damage he sustained Friday evening.
Spurs vs Celtics Preview
On Saturday evening, the younger San Antonio squad will face their third MVP candidate in 4 video games. Boston’s Jayson Tatum has been been a power this season as he appears to be like to guide the Celtics again to the NBA Finals. Fifth within the league in scoring (30.7 ppg), the previous lottery decide has six video games the place he has scored 40 factors or extra. In fact, he isn’t doing it alone with Jaylen Brown’s title floating across the MVP dialog as properly. The Celtics as a crew are primary in scoring, and among the many greatest in every thing from limiting turnovers to assists.
For every thing that Boston is, San Antonio is just not. They’re the league’s worst protection (120 ppg allowed) and probably the most turnover-prone models (16). The Spurs are in for fairly the psychological take a look at. Past a robust offensive unit, the Celtics have a robust protection as properly. Think about then that San Antonio could possibly be with out its prime two scorers in Johnson and Vassell. Tre Jones and Josh Richardson held issues down in opposition to the Pistons, and Romeo Langford has peppered in some massive nights this season. Nonetheless, that hardly looks like sufficient if Johnson can’t play.
Pleasant Connections
The Spurs and Celtics have executed fairly a little bit of enterprise collectively the final two years. As such, they are going to have some ties between the gamers on the court docket Saturday night. Almost a yr in the past, San Antonio traded Derrick White to Boston for Langford, Richardson, Boston’s 2022 first-round decide (Wesley), and the suitable to swap firsts in 2028. Even the sidelined Gallinari has a Spurs connection. He was a part of the return from sending Dejounte Murray to the Atlanta Hawks over the summer season. Gallinari was launched by San Antonio shortly after and signed with Boston. The groups additionally did one other deal simply this week the place the Spurs helped the Celtics clear some cap area. Paul Garcia of Undertaking Spurs broke down the commerce over on our YouTube channel.