Spurs, emboldened by wins over Thunder, put streak on line vs. Jazz
The San Antonio Spurs will look to continue their hot streak and move closer to the top spot in the Western Conference when they host the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.
San Antonio brings a league-leading eight-game winning streak into its first of three meetings with the Jazz this season.
The Spurs head home after a 117-102 road win over the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder on Christmas Day. It was the third time in 13 days that San Antonio pinned a loss on Oklahoma City, while the Thunder is 26-2 against the rest of the league. The Spurs' victories in that span came at a neutral site (in Las Vegas on Dec. 13), in San Antonio (on Tuesday) and in Oklahoma City.
De'Aaron Fox scored 29 points to lead San Antonio on Thursday as the Spurs extended their longest winning streak since 2018-19. However, he is listed as questionable for Saturday due to left adductor tightness.
Victor Wembanyama, who came off the Spurs' bench for the sixth consecutive game after missing 12 contests with a calf injury, racked up 19 points and 11 rebounds in 26 minutes on Christmas. Stephon Castle also had 19 points, Harrison Barnes hit for 15 points and Dylan Harper scored 12.
"We learned that when you play a team multiple times in short stretches, there's a familiarity, obviously, and it breeds, and when you play a team (Thunder) of this caliber, the details are that much more magnified because of the familiarity, and we did a phenomenal job as the game progressed," San Antonio coach Mitch Johnson said.
San Antonio shot 53.6% from the field in the win, its second consecutive game above 50% -- both contests vs. the Thunder, who lead the league in opponents' field-goal percentage (43.4).
"This was like a playoff series, and we learned a lot on the tactical side, and we definitely got some intelligence," Wembanyama said. "All of us are happy to come into work. We know we're going to have fun, we know we're going to go out there and produce competitive basketball."
The Jazz travel to San Antonio for the second game of a home-road back-to-back set after edging the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons 131-129 on Friday. Keyonte George canned a short jumper with 2.1 seconds remaining for the winning points after Utah squandered a 15-point, third-quarter lead.
George scored 31 points to lead the Jazz while Lauri Markkanen had 30 and Jusuf Nurkic added 16 points and 11 rebounds. Brice Sensabaugh and Kevin Love contributed 20 and 14 points, respectively, off the bench as Utah snapped a four-game losing streak.
"At the end of the day, it's just about us playing the basketball that we wanna play," George said postgame. "That's what we did tonight. This is a team win for sure. It's easier to carry momentum when you win, especially going into a tough back-to-back. This is a big test for us."
George scored at least 31 points for the fourth time in his past seven games. He is averaging 30.3 points per game over that stretch, during which Utah has won three times.
The Jazz were also bolstered on Friday by the return of Markkanen, who missed four of the team's previous seven games with a nagging groin injury that has kept him out of back-to-back games. It remains to be seen if Markkanen will play on Saturday.