It’s time for Basketball: Spurs vs Raptors

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The Spurs outperformed expectations in their miniseries against the Suns, wining both games, the first with an improbable comeback that peaked with Keldon Johnson’s incredible steal and snaking layup with seconds left, and the second one with Wembanyama’s dominant performance on both ends overcoming Devin Booker’s fourth quarter attempt at a Phoenix comeback. The only negative from the trip to Arizona was the loss of Devin Vassell to groin tightness, which may keep him out of the lineup for a while to keep it from becoming a lingering issue.

Without Devin in the lineup, the Spurs are going to need someone to step up in his place. I expect Malaki Branham to take Vassell’s place in the starting lineup, but if he continues with his cold shooting form, we might see a lot of Cedi Osman and an early entry into the game from Tre Jones. Zach Collins has been working his way out of his early season shooting slump and he could have a big game today. Keldon Johnson will have to do more on offense today, and of course, the offense will revolve around Victor Wembanyama, who is already becoming a dominant player in just his sixth game in the league. If the rest of the teams figures out how to get the rock to Victor, it will probably work out OK.

It’s an early afternoon game, but with the hour we gained from our annual ‘fall back’ at the end of Daylight Savings Time, maybe the Spurs will be able to have a solid start today. Last year, they always seemed to be sleepwalking through the first quarters of day games. Let’s watch and find out.

Game Prediction:

Darko Rajakovic (Raptors coach) and Gregg Popovich will have a long conversation in Serbian during one of the timeouts. Nobody else will ever know what they talked about.

One final word:

Go Spurs GOOOOOO!!

San Antonio Spurs vs Toronto Raptors
November 5, 2023 | 2:30 PM CT
Streaming: Bally Sports
TV: Bally Sports Southwest

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