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The Spurs have two games left before the All Star break, tonight against the Lakers, and tomorrow night against the Warriors, both late night games on the west coast. It’s the back-to-back series of games with a LA face and an Oakland booty. Another
interesting fact is that both the Lakers and Warriors will be missing their best players on both nights. Out for the Lakers tonight will be LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and Marcus Smart, and Ayton is listed as questionable. The Spurs have not been exactly dominant against teams that sit out a lot of their starting lineup, and the Spurs could be a bit distracted with several of their players taking part in All Star festivities this weekend. This will be an interesting test of Mitch Johnson’s coaching to see if he can get his team to play with intensity against a team whose best player is probably … Rui Hachimura? Don’t get me wrong, Rui is good, but he doesn’t have the ability to create trips to the free throw line from thin air like Luka. And LeBron is old, but still can take over a game in short stretches. Even with all those players missing, the Tinseltown torch bearers have a lot of players who can score. Dalton Knecht can hit shots, as can Rui and Luke Kennard. Jaxson Hayes is one of my least favorite NBA players, but he can dunk the ball well enough that he was invited to the dunk contest this year. If the Spurs allow the Lakers to stay in the game until the fourth quarter, it could be a tough night for the Silver and Black, when what they really want to do is save their energy for tomorrow night’s 9:00 PM game against the Curry-less Warriors in San Francisco (not actually Oakland any more).
The newly crowned Western Conference Player of the Week [Stephon Castle] will look to have a big night, and De’Aaron Fox should be able to get whatever shot he wants to, because the Laker defense is normally bad, but without Smart, it’s going to be terrible. Best case scenario, Victor Wembanyama puts this game away early and cheers on the Spurs garbage time crew from the bench for most of the fourth quarter. But the more likely outcome involves the starters having to play big minutes to put the Lakers away late. Ugh.
It’s a late night game, so you might want to check your coffee reserves before the game starts. GO SPURS GOO!!
Game Prediction:
Jordan McLaughlin puts on a show with 20 points in the fourth quarter as he repeatedly blows past Luke Kennard.
San Antonio Spurs vs Dallas Mavericks
February 10, 2026 | 9:30 PM CT
Streaming: NBA League Pass
TV: NBATV/FanDuel Sports Southwest
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