The Spurs are 31-40 and effectively out of the playoff chase in the ultra-competitive Western Conference, but they’ve been doing alright recently, winning 5 of 8. They are 8-11 without Wemby and 4-3 since Fox went down. As a team they are averaging 123.8 points per game in March, a big jump from the 114.6 they average on the season. Go figure.
The Cavs should not take this team lightly as they’ve been scoring a lot of points and winning some games recently, although against mostly weak competition. For the season they are 11-23 on the road and 11-23 against teams .500 and over. With 6’10” backup center Charles Bassey also out they do not have a player on their roster available to play who is over 6’8”. They have no choice but to play small ball.
Chris Fedor pointed out that the Cavs’ schedule is pretty brutal right now.
The Cavs were scheduled to leave Portland around 11:30 p.m. local time and that means getting home at 7:30 a.m. [Wednesday]. That is outrageous, that is ridiculous, and then they go into a back-to-back, they go into one home game and then they have to travel again. Who hates them in the NBA schedule maker’s office? Oh, and then the matinee is the next game? My God. They go home for one game, then go to Detroit, play Detroit, then they go back home and play a matinee game at 3.30 p.m.
Yeah, three games in four days after a west coast trip and it’s not a home stand, it’s home, then away, then a home matinee. So I’m not taking the Spurs game for granted.
Both teams were off Wednesday. The Spurs got hammered Tuesday in Detroit 122-96.
The Spurs will be starting 32-year-old 6’8” Bismack Biyombo at center. According to their depth chart, his backup is 6’8” forward Jeremy Sochan, averaging 12 points and 7 rebounds.
Their forwards are 32-year-old Harrison Barnes, 6’8”, who averages 12 ppg, and 6’5” Devin Vassell, who is their leading scorer at 16 ppg. The guards are 20-year-old rookie Stephon Castle, the #4 overall pick this year, and 39-year-old Chris Paul, averaging 8.8 points and 7.7 assists. Castle is their second leading scorer at 14 ppg on 43% from the field and 29% on 3’s.
Fox was averaging 20 points and 7 assists although he only played 17 games for the Spurs after the trade. Wemby averaged 24 points and 11 boards and was on track to be the runaway choice as DPOY before a blood clot forced him to shut it down.
So their starters consist of two guys in their 30’s, a 39-year-old, a 20-year-old rookie, and Vassell. Nobody over 6’8”, nobody over 16 ppg. They don’t look like much on paper. And Pops is still out as well. They’ve won some games recently against bad or injury riddled teams like Toronto, Philly, the Knicks (without Brunson), New Orleans, Dallas, and Brooklyn. The last good team they beat was Memphis on March 1 when they had Fox and the Grizzlies were missing Ja Morant.
Defensively the Spurs rank 23rd in opponent scoring and that’s with Wemby playing 46 games. They’re missing the best defensive player in the league and even with him for two-thirds of the year they were well below average in scoring defense. I’m not sure where that puts them now.
They also rank 26th in defensive rebound percentage, again with Victor playing 46 games. Without him they might be the worst defensive rebounding team in the league.
Offensively they rank 14th in scoring but without Wemby and Fox you’d expect them to be lower. They only managed 96 against the Pistons on Tuesday.
This should be an easy win for the Cavs but Evan Mobley is getting the night off and Ty Jerome is a game time decision. Coming off the big win over Portland and with the fatigue of flying in from the west coast in the middle of the night they could easily come out flat. They’ll also be looking ahead to the Pistons game in Detroit the following night. This is a trap game to start with and they’ll also have to deal with Mobley and possibly Jerome being out. We’ll see how the Cavs handle it.
Injury Report
CLEVELAND
Evan Mobley - OUT (rest)
Jaylon Tyson - OUT (knee)
Emoni Bates - OUT (personal)
Ty Jerome - QUESTIONABLE (knee)
SAN ANTONIO
Charles Bassey - OUT (knee)
De'Aaron Fox - OUT (finger)
Victor Wembanyama - OUT (blood clot)
Riley Minix - OUT (shoulder)