Game Thread Spurs (23-9) vs Knicks (23-9) (Wed 12/31/25) [6:00 PM CDT]

we need to make sure Fox and Harper are staggered at all times. Would be easier with Harper off the bench. Unless you want more McLaughlin minutes.

Could be a good game to pull DJG from the gleague too
I've honestly been surprised we haven't seen more DJG this season but I agree with Castle out it seems to be the right moment for it.

If I am counting correctly, however, DJG has used 19 of his 50 allowable active opportunities (10 games played, 9 DNPs vs 13 games listed as inactive). Spurs might have to be more judicious about calling him if he's far removed from the gameplan.

A lot of folks have just assumed he's destined to be converted to a full deal, but he is far less accomplished than Champ and Bassey were when they were finally signed.

This seems like it could really be DJG's time to shine.
 
we need to make sure Fox and Harper are staggered at all times. Would be easier with Harper off the bench. Unless you want more McLaughlin minutes.

Could be a good game to pull DJG from the gleague too
You can still do that.

Sub Harper out at 6 minutes left in the 1st. Leave Fox in.

Sub in Harper for Fox with 3 minutes left in 1st.

Sub in Fox for Harper with 9 minutes left in 2nd.

Sub Harper back in with 6 mins to go in 2nd. Leave Fox in.

Repeat second half.

36 minutes each. They can handle that on a shorthanded night. Both start and finish the games.
 
Expecting another tough game. Spurs will need to hit 3s to keep up with the Knicks.

Knicks are 3rd in the league in 3FGM and 4th in 3FG%.

For reference Cavs are 4th in the league in 3FGM.

Warriors are 1st.

Suns are 9th.

These 4 teams make up 7 of the Spurs 10 losses this year. 9 in the RS plus the Cup Final loss to the Knicks. 2 other losses were against the Jazz who went 17-37 from 3, the Wolves who went 17-37 from 3.
well the book is out. Does SS and Mitch counter and change scheme / FO make trades or be stubborn and die.
 
If both Castle and Vassell are out someone suggested Sochan starting, and honestly that might not be the worst idea... similar with Bryant if Sochan has truly played his way out of the team forever.

Thought is you start Sochan and give him a chance and if it falls flat (like it has of late) he just rotates out and never comes back in the game, similar to what we saw with some of Biyombo's starts.
 
Harper is not starting and then playing 36 minutes. Delusional. He should stay on the bench.
 
I will start Fox, Waters, Champs, Barnes and Wemby ..Harper, DJG, Bryant, Kornet on the bench and Lunch Lady at a pinch. Sochan as things stand is damaged goods. Waters is capable of hitting the threes and can at least try to contain Brunson along with Champs with Bryant as the backup for the assignment. Let Harper finish instead of Waters in the fourth / crunch though.
 
Bryant needs extensive minutes to get over rookie hump. Even after Castle and comeback.
 
The Main question for this game is:

Will Wemby lose his 5th game in a row as a starter?

All of those were home games too.
 
If both Castle and Vassell are out someone suggested Sochan starting, and honestly that might not be the worst idea... similar with Bryant if Sochan has truly played his way out of the team forever.

Thought is you start Sochan and give him a chance and if it falls flat (like it has of late) he just rotates out and never comes back in the game, similar to what we saw with some of Biyombo's starts.
It is the worst idea tho,Our recent problems lately is shooting.Now you want to start the worst shooter with confidence issues going on rn?
We already know who sochan is.Why keep on giving him more chances when we know what type of players he is.
 
Questionable with a thumb sprain? FFS, just play him.
I'm fully onboard with not risking it when it comes to muscle injuries, but this shit has to stop.
Boomer talk, but finger injuries weren't even considered as injuries unless it was a fracture back in the day. Everyone had at least one bad finger.
Fox just played most of the season with a fucked up finger.

As for Sochan starting, it actually makes sense because as we've endessly debated last season him and Castle can't play together due to spacing. But if Castle doesn't play, we need a POA defender.
I'd personally rather start Bryant, but whatever.

Hart, Robinson and Shamet are out for the Knicks, so it kind of evens out.
 
Spurs may need to give Riley Minix a look at some point.
Minix no longer even a Two Way Player. That slot went first to Kyle Mangas and then to Stanley Umude. The Spurs' best shooter outside of the top 9 is clearly DJGarcia... who I guess will get some minutes against the Knicks because of Vassell and/or Castle's absence. And DJG deserves it. He has been on a tear averaging 27 odd points in the G-League (but for some reason he is shooting only 21% on the three!; I guess small sample size of just five games though).
 
Questionable with a thumb sprain? FFS, just play him.
I'm fully onboard with not risking it when it comes to muscle injuries, but this shit has to stop.
Boomer talk, but finger injuries weren't even considered as injuries unless it was a fracture back in the day. Everyone had at least one bad finger.
Fox just played most of the season with a fucked up finger.


As for Sochan starting, it actually makes sense because as we've endessly debated last season him and Castle can't play together due to spacing. But if Castle doesn't play, we need a POA defender.
I'd personally rather start Bryant, but whatever.

Hart, Robinson and Shamet are out for the Knicks, so it kind of evens out.
It really is boomer talk, and your Fox example goes to show how flawed the logic is - the same Spurs' medical team which gave Fox the green-light last season, is also handling Castle's thumb case here and possibly holding him out over it.

At this point it really should be wide and common sense that a three-word description of any given injury is far too little for outsider fans to make judgements on. Literally no medical professional would ever make a diagnosis based on only the injury name/type, yet many fans feel entitled to judge whether a given injury "should" keep a player out or not, or how long to be sat based on a Google search of "[X injury] recovery timeline".......... It's ridiculous, beyond narcissistic, and certainly boomer-esque.
 
kinda surprised we're favored tbh. knicks are usually good on the big stage, and are a solid vet team. i guess it being a home game is one of the driving factors, especially with the spurs not having played all that well the last couple of games after the emotional high of Thunder Week.

i understand losing to a good cavs team on the road, but that it followed a home loss to utah made it feel a lot worse than it otherwise would have. obviously one could just look ahead and say the pacers/blazers/grizzlies games are good opportunites to get things back on track, but it would show good resolve to bounce back against a good knicks team who beat us on a big state not all that long ago

with jokic about to miss a significant stretch of games, the lakers floundering (have lost 4 of 5 and reaves will still be out for some time), this is our time to really take hold of one of those top 4 seeds. wins against OKC notwithstanding, we are still in the midst of the toughest stretch of the schedule
 
It's full-blown crisis if we lose this one, tbh.
:st-lol: we've already lost to this same team like a month ago, and have surpassed 20 wins before 10 losses, which has us at "Contender Pace" according to the Phil Jackson rule -- even if we miss this game as well.

Some of y'all could really use a chill pill with your New Years' toast lol
 
It's full-blown crisis if we lose this one, tbh.
not really. losing on the road to a good cavs team then dropping to a good knicks team is not really cause for panic. while you'd obviously rather win, those are the losses you'd expect to see along the way. its losing to bad/mid teams (jazz game) that are cause for concern. we've already shown we can hang with okc, denver, lakers, rockets. our loss to the knicks in the cup final was a hard contested game until they pulled away a bit in the 4th.

if we were getting constantly routed every time we played a good team, then i'd be concerned (like the first suns game)
 
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