Welcome to the Game Thread. Veterans of the Game Thread know how we do things around here, but for all you newbies we have a few rules. Our community guidelines apply and basically say be cool, no personal
attacks, don’t troll and don’t swear too much.
You won’t find it on the regular season record books, but the Spurs and Knicks have already met once this season, as the team from the Big Apple exploited the same weaknesses that the Jazz and Cavaliers have exposed in the last couple of games as they cruised to a 124-113 win. The Knicks outrebounded, outshot, and outran the Spurs, and took over the game in the fourth. Tonight, the Spurs will have to play better to have a shot of halting their two game losing streak, which is tied for the longest streak of the year. It’s a bit of an emotional roller coaster as the Spurs could go on their longest losing streak of the year immediately following the incredible high of outplaying the defending champs three times in a short series of games on their way to what seemed to be a dominant season.
The truth is that it’s still early in the season and nothing has been decided yet. It’s great to pile up some wins whenever you can, but the NBA season is long, and you can’t win the championship in December. The early season games count as much as the games later in the season, so the best teams are the ones that can consistently perform, and recover from adversity in order to be in good shape when the playoffs begin. It’s been a while since the Spurs have been in that grind, and maybe the last couple of games have shown their inexperience. Tonight would be a good night to turn it around and show that the team can be a contender.
Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson are OUT for the Knicks tonight, and both of them were key contributors in the previous Knicks win. In particular, Robinson’s rebounding gave the Knicks a ton of second-chance points that were very damaging to the Silver and Black’s chances in Las Vegas. The Spurs will be without the services of Devin Vassell, and Stephon Castle is questionable with a thumb injury on his non-shooting hand. Castle’s defense is important in limiting Jalen Brunson, who has been one of the most dominant offensive players in the NBA this season. Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby both had terrific games in the previous contest, and Victor Wembanyama can’t defend both of them, so we could see some of the double big (AKA French Vanilla) lineup for the Spurs. Let’s hope for a different outcome than the previous meeting, and Happy New Year everyone. Let’s GOO Spurs!!
Game Prediction:
The game will have 11 overtimes and span into 2026, with a champagne break at midnight, with Julian Champagnie leading the countdown.
San Antonio Spurs vs New York Knickerbockers
December 31, 2025 | 6:00 PM CT
Streaming: NBATV
TV: NBATV, FanDuel Sports Southwest
Reminder: It is against site policy to post links to illegal streams in the comments.
