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The Spurs have lost their last two games, the last one a blowout in Oklahoma City where the Thunder took over the game in the third quarter and won 119-98. After spending most of the last couple on months in second place in the Western Conference, the Spurs have dropped to third place, half a game behind the Denver Nuggets who are on a 3 game winning streak despite missing the services of Nikola Jokic, with Jamal Murray playing like an All Star. The longest losing streak by the Spurs this year has been two games, and they need a win tonight to keep that going. It might be tough to do that against the Bucks, who are not having a great year, currently at 17-23, but who are always dangerous with Giannis Antetokounmpo capable of a big scoring night at any time. Giannis is dealing with an ankle injury, but he’s listed as probable in the injury report, so he should be fine tonight.
The Spurs’ will again be missing the services of Devin Vassell, with an adductor strain. It seems odd that the Spurs’ record without Vassell is worse than it was without Victor Wembanyama, but I think that’s more of a coincidence than causation, although the Spurs do miss his ability to make and create shots. The rest of the team has been in a terrible shooting slump for what seems like years, but it’s really been only about 3 weeks, ever since the Christmas Day game in Oklahoma City. Tonight would be a good time to break out, and the team started to show some signs of that in the last game, with the Spurs shooting 35% on three point shots against the Thunder. That’s not a great percentage, but it looks golden compared to most of the game in 2026 so far. If the Spur can keep improving their shooting while playing good defense, they should break their losing streak tonight.
Tonight is the 41st game of the season, exactly halfway through the NBA marathon 82-game slog. The Spurs are still a very young team that hasn’t been to the playoffs for several years, so where they are now is pretty impressive, and the big challenge for them is to keep up the intensity for the rest of the season and land somewhere near the top of the playoff standings in the west. The team has looked pretty tired lately, and it’s perhaps understandable to be a little fatigued at this point in the season as the team has to play so many games in such a short timeline. The All Star break is a little over three weeks away, so if the team can hold on for that long, they should get a chance to recover while Victor Wembanyama and (maybe) Stephon Castle spend a few days with some low impact aerobic exercise in front of an audience. Let’s GO SPURS!!!
Game Prediction:
Giannis Antetokounmpo is blocked a couple of times driving to the basket by Victor Wembanyama, and he decides to settle for long three point shots in the second half, which all miss badly.
San Antonio Spurs vs Milwaukee Bucks
January 15, 2026 | 7:00 PM CT
Streaming: NBA League Pass
TV: FanDuel Sports Southwest
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