Festive celebrations have ended. The San Antonio Spurs had a merry Christmas with their third-straight win over the Oklahoma City Thunder while extending their 8-game winning streak. They’ll look to avoid a holiday hangover against the Utah Jazz back home in San Antonio on Saturday night.
The Jazz are a scrappy young team that can beat unsuspecting teams on any given night. Case in point, Utah defeated the Eastern Conference’s best, the Detroit Pistons, on Friday night, 131-129. They have legit high-end
players like Lauri Markkanen and Keyonte George, both of whom dropped 30 against Detroit last night. An off night for the Spurs could snap their winning streak.
San Antonio had some recent shaky performances against teams with losing records, including their most recent win against the Washington Wizards. They’ll need to take advantage of their home crowd and their rest advantage, as the Jazz will be on the second game of a back-to-back. The Spurs may be down a key contributor, as De’Aaron Fox is listed as questionable with left adductor tightness. They’ll need to lean on their depth to take down a confident Jazz squad.
San Antonio Spurs (23-7) vs. Utah Jazz (11-19)
December 27, 2025 | 7 PM CT
Watch: FanDuel Southwest | Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)
Spurs Injuries: Stanley Umude – Out (G League), David Jones-Garcia – Questionable (G League), Harrison Ingram – Out (G League), De’Aaron Fox – Questionable (thigh)
Jazz Injuries: Do not need to report until 1 pm CT
What to watch for:
A potential shootout
Utah plays a fast-paced style with its group of young guards, highlighted by George and Isaiah Collier, and space the floor with bigs like Markkanen and Kyle Filipowski. They are 5th in the NBA in pace of play, and score the 7th most points in the league. However, their defense is the worst in the NBA. San Antonio’s offense should continue to thrive against the porous Jazz defense, but they’ll need to lock in defensively as they did against OKC if they want to avoid a shootout.
A fill-in for Fox
It’s no guarantee that Fox sits, but given his sudden addition to the injury report, it wouldn’t be a shock that he misses the game. In the past, the Spurs have moved Stephon Castle to the lead guard position and added Julian Champagnie to the starting lineup. But with Dylan Harper playing so well recently, and Champagnie struggling to shoot the ball well, it could make sense to give the rookie his first NBA start. That would make it harder for the Spurs to stagger the guards like they’ve had success with this season, but it would give them more offensive firepower to start the game. Even if he doesn’t start, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Harper take over Fox’s primary playmaking role at the end of the game.
French Vanilla
The Jazz often play two bigs together. Markkanen, Filipowski, and Jusuf Nurkic share the court a lot and cause problems for smaller teams in the paint. Utah is 6th in total rebounds and 7th in offensive rebounds. San Antonio could employ the “French Vanilla” duo of Victor Wembanyama and Luke Kornet to match up with the Jazz’s size. The duo has logged 46 minutes together this season with a +4.1 net rating in that time. They’ll be able to protect the rim and rebound at a high rate with those two in the game. Now that Wembanyama is playing more minutes (he logged 26 against the Thunder on Christmas), we should start to see a bit more of him and Kornet together.
