Season -opener: San Antonio Spurs vs. Mavericks preview

Season -opener: San Antonio Spurs vs. Mavericks preview

It’s time. Yeah. Regular season begins for your San Antonio Spurs taking on Dallas on the road. You are locked on Spurs. Your daily San Antonio Spurs podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Happy Wednesday, or should I say happy Spurs day. Welcome back to Locked On Spurs. I’m your host, Jeff Garcia, Spurs writer for Ken 5 San Antonio. As always, we are glad to have you back and I know you guys are excited for today. Yeah, I wonder why. Huh? Yeah. Could it be because the Spurs regular season begins tonight on the road in Dallas? Yes, that’s we’re going to be talking about today. We’re going to be previewing tonight’s game. We’re going to look back at how the Spurs did in preeason action. Look ahead tonight’s game. Who do we pick outside of Victor? That’s the game. And Victor’s always easy answer, right? Uh but outside of Victor, who should the Spurs look to to pick up the slap considering there’ll be no Fox and no Sohan? More on that later. And then we’re going to look at Dallas. How did they do in the uh preseason? uh who stood out for them and then talk about the latest Spurs news regarding Jeremy Sohan. Yeah, no contract extension. More on that in just a bit. As always, subscribe to Lockdown Spurs or get your favorite podcast, iTunes, Spotify, K5 plus app, YouTube. You know what to do. And that is always always go subscribe to Lockdown Spurs ASAP. All right, I think I got everything set. I think we’re ready to go. I hope so. The Spurs are ready to go because I am still trying to get everything all organized here. All right, let’s talk about tonight’s game. Yeah, opening night on the road in Dallas. I35 rivalry. It’s Cooper Flag. Number one pick versus the number two pick, Dylan Harper. Should be a fun fun night. Uh let’s go break it down. All right, let’s go to bring in our guest. It may not be Mondays with Matt, but you all know why it was not Mondays with Matt. We had a big announcement. It is I guess Wednesdays with Matt. Doesn’t have the same ring, but we’ll get back to it ASAP though. He is Matt Guzman with Spurs on Sports Illustrated. FormerX at Matt GZAN. Yeah. Uh, you understood why there was no Monday with Matt, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And I’m very happy for Casey. Super excited to watch him and his segments after the games, but you know, all good. No worries. Yeah. Yeah. For those y’all did not hear, uh, lockdown spurs got bigger. Just to clarify, because I got a lot of texts, man. People thought that I was given the boot. Well, yeah. I think Tracy kind of worded it oddly, but luckily but thankfully to him, you know, he did clarify, you know, with a follow-up post. But for those of y’all did not hear, Locked on Spurs is getting bigger and better. Locked on Spurs, this show you’re watch right now is the main show. It is the big cheese. It’s the big boss. All right. And then under Locked on Spurs will be postgame shows with Casey, y’all know him, and former Spur NBA champion Devin Brown. And then all three of us will get together twice a week for a Spurs round table. So yeah, that’s what’s going on. No, I sorry everybody. Hate to break the news to you. I wasn’t given the boot. So Oh no, not that. But nevertheless, let’s talk about what is going on today, Matt. That is Spurs at Dallas. Game one, regular season begins. Let’s look how the Spurs did. Well, actually, no. Let’s do some housekeeping. All right, let’s do that first. Let’s look at the housekeeping. All right. So, your injury report is uh Spurs y’all know is Fox out hamstring, Sohan out wrist, and Lindy Waters out eye. So, those three guys will not be in uniform. And for the Mavericks, I think y’all will know already. Kyrie Irving out with a knee injury. Who knows when he’ll come back. Uh hopefully uh you know, he does come back because that guy, he’s a pretty good player. Uh the Mavericks are favored tonight according to Bet MGM by a minus3. So, they’re expecting a very close game. And uh yeah, that is your quick quick quick housekeeping report. I’m a little rusty with these uh game previews, man. It’s been a while, but let’s going to dive into it. Let’s look at the Spurs. All right, so heading into tonight’s game, they go they go from a undefeated preseason back to a clean slate at 0 and 0. There’s a lot to take from the preseason play. What stands out for me is this team looks like it’s ready to be on a different level. They look like they’re ready to take the next step. uh from Kellen to Victor to Devin to Castle, they seem primed and ready to kill the drought, playoff drought, and enter the postseason. But another thing that stands out for me outside of just the vibe is just on the floor they look like they’re humming. They look like offensively they can score. I mean, think about it. Once they go 100%, that’s Fox when you all know who the usual suspects are. But defensively, I think that’s where they’re going to shine. They have a lot of good defenders or great defenders. I think this is going to be a balanced team based on what we saw in pre-season action. And if they need scoring, they don’t have to turn to your usual suspects like Victor or Fox or Castle and pick a player. They can go even deeper if David Jones Garcia stays on the roster. We saw what he did in the in the preseason versus Utah. Just lit them up. I am expecting a lot from this first team based on preseason. And look, Matt and I know it’s preseason. They’re not at full power either side, but nevertheless, Matt, I like what’s going on with this Spurs team based on preseason action. What did you take away? Absolutely. And I think that’s a very fair assessment. And I think makes it a little bit different than maybe years past or maybe other teams preseason is that, you know, they were trying to get Victor reaclimated to playing NBA basketball. So the result was you know you didn’t see only 12 minutes from you know yeah you saw 22 23 24 minutes from Victor Wmanyama and Devin Vel and Stefon Castle you know even Dylan Harper who’s on the screen real strong as a rookie. Um he looked like he was ready to kind of plug into that system and be an option for Victor and be a facilitator. Um, and so I think when you when you take that into account, obviously, right, the teams they faced were not at full strength or, you know, there’s always going to be a level of, okay, maybe we don’t have to try as hard or maybe this can slip by. But when you kind of look at the big picture, you know, what the Spurs were able to do in the preseason, you know, the fact that they looked cohesive enough to put together five wins in a row, you know, you like to think that there is some momentum there and that some of these guys who got runtime for the first time in a while, you know, are going to use this to their advantage. And I think that that’s definitely going to show, you know, tonight when they face the Mavs, they’re going to look cohesive and a little bit more polished. Yeah, exactly. And the Spurs, they look pretty strong in preseason action. I’m going to pull up some of the numbers here. See how they did statistically. See, we get them up here. Here we go. Uh you look at uh just scoring, you start off the offensive side in preseason action, they had one, two, three, four, five, six players scoring in double figures. That’s really good to know. Also, three-point percentage again still a shaky issue for me, but nevertheless, what stood out for me is Julian Champagne. He shot 63% from three line. Now, obviously, that’s going to cool off a lot in the regular season playing against real defense, not preseason defense. So, but nevertheless, at least we know the Spurs could have a sniper on roster and may not have to look for one. And beyond that though, what stood out for me on the negative side is free throw. free throw percentage was very low around 76 77% not good. That is the difference between a win and a loss this upcoming season and especially this first month where the schedule is quote unquote easy you know winnable games they can’t afford to drop these early winnable games. Uh other this stuff the two turnovers you know Victor had nearly five a game you know you know I get it you know the ball’s in his hand the most he tries to facilitate but I like to see that cut down a lot starting tonight in Dallas. What else stood out for you statistically match? I think one of the bigger players that I was excited to watch and who ended up doing really well was Luke Cornette. You know, I think there was a lot of talk about how big adding, you know, big people next to Victor was going to be, how how important it was going to be to add front court depth. And I think Luke Cornet stepped up to the bill. And he I mean, he really he really like he delivered exactly what they were expecting him to do. You know, he looked great in the pick and roll with Dylan Harper. He looked good on the boards. He looked like he could finish a play. You know, just because he’s tall and big doesn’t mean he’s going to be lanky and and clunky like we see some of these sevenfooters in the NBA. um he looked very very like he looked like he could be plugged into the system and work right away and I think that was the hope and I think Victor’s really really excited about that. Um so I’m going to be looking forward to watching him and and seeing what that looks like come regular season because I have a sneaky suspicion that he might be one of the better pickups of the offseason around the league. Yeah, absolutely. Um I got to update the picture though. I think I got to put him in a Spurs uniform ASAP. You got to put him in the seven. I got to put him in the seven. Yeah, exactly. Look at that. Yeah, everybody. It’ll probably be what, next year where I have an updated photo with him. Uh, nevertheless, uh, yeah. Um, what’s interesting though is that Luke Cornet, you’re looking at some of the stats. Let me take off his Celtics picture there. Uh, five games, played all five games in the preseason, 18 minutes per game, 12.6 points per game, 79% field goal shooting, and as far as rebounds concerned, I got it right here, nearly seven a game with about a block a game as well. So, uh, minimal turnovers, too. Just 1.4. So, interesting. Interesting. Yeah, Luke Cornet seemingly is such a great find for this Spurs team. All right, so we all know what the Spurs did in preseason because we all watch them, but what about the Mavericks? Yeah, let’s take a look at the Mavericks side coming up next right here on Locked on Spurs. This episode is brought to you by Price Picks. Every day we make decisions, but on Price Picks, being right can actually get you paid. Don’t miss the excitement of this football season with Price Picks, where it’s good to be right. Playing prize picks is fun, simple way to add more excitement to football. You just pick more or less on player projections like Josh Allen’s passing yards or Saquon Barkley’s rushing for a touchdown. You’re in the game. You love how quick it is. You can make your lineups in under a minute. They added stack. So if you want to ride with a player, you can select their pass yards, rush yards, touchdowns, all in one lineup. 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Whether you’re grabbing food at your favorite restaurant or heading to the gym, you’ll earn rewards ASAP. Built has made every life feel more rewarding. From your neighborhood to your travel plans, when you turn to rent, you want to look to build. Turn your rent into rewards and start earning points around your neighborhood by going to join.com/ltonva. That’s j o i n b i l t.com/lockton NBA. Make sure you use that link so they know that we sent you. We’re back right here on Locked on Spurs joined by Matt Guzman with Spurs on Sports Illustrated. Followex at Matt Jeezy. Man, we’re looking at tonight’s game. Spurs Mavericks game one of the your San Antonio Spurs season tonight on the road. They’ll be at home this Sunday. So, just got to wait a few more days and then yeah, you get to cheer them on if you’re in San Antonio live and up close. We’re looking at the Maverick side of the uh side here of tonight’s matchup here. And I’m pull up some of the stats here. And right off the bat, what stands out for me is my goodness, Cooper Flag might be the real deal. He really stood out for Dallas in preseason action. He averaged, I’m going to get it right here, four games, 21 minutes per game, 11.3 points per game. He shot 30 40% from the field and he averaged five rebounds, three assists per game, and about 1.3 steals. Not bad for a rookie. Anthony Davis, 15 points per game, he averaged about 52% shooting and 6.5 rebounds. You know what, Matt, when I look at the Mavericks, I see this is still a team that despite the whole Luca thing, nevertheless, on paper, they seem to still be a team that you can’t sleep on. Absolutely. And you know, one of those things with the Anthony Davis trade was a lot of people under were underelling what they were getting back for Luca. Obviously Davis is no Luca Donuch, but you know, when he’s on, he’s one of those players. He’s always been funny to me to watch because he’s either on or he’s off. And when he’s on, he’s one of the scariest players in the league. And so you pair that with Cooper Flag, who also has size to him and obviously did really well in preseason. You know, it was pretty apparent even from summer league when I got to see him for the first time like, you know, he had the makings of a really, really, really talented forward. You know, somebody who can do point guard and forward at the same time. You know, he’s going to be a good addition for that squad. You know, who, like you said, I mean, they’re not down in the dumps. They’re not just giving up and raising the white flag because they got rid of Luca Donuch. You know, they feel like they have a team worthy of contention in the Western Conference. You know, I think this is probably set to be the most equal matchup between these two teams to begin the year that it’s been in a few seasons. Um, but I mean, yeah, they definitely are looking like a strong team and Cooper flag is going to be essential to that as well. Yeah, exactly. And they definitely have the pieces around them to build around Cooper, Anthony Davis, a big one. Kyrie Irving if and when he does come back. PJ Washington as another strong player. Naji Marshall. They got veteran presence with Klay Thompson, Max Christie. Derek Lively is another guy that seems to be a thorn on the Spurs side when they play. And don’t forget D’Angelo Russell is a new maverick. He came in to help fill the void and due to Kyrie being out. He averaged six points per game and shot about 31% from the field in three games for Dallas, 18 minutes per game. So again, on paper, this is a team that you cannot sleep on despite no Luca. Cooper will be the focal point for the Spurs defensively. You can definitely see them key on him. It’s also gonna be exciting to see Harper versus Cooper. Now, obviously, they don’t play the same position, but nevertheless, it’ll be great to see those two guys. And I think it’s going to up the value tonight, up the excitement, seeing number one and number two pick go at each other. What do you think? For sure. And I think that’s if the league is is very keen on Oh, yeah. That using any of that any of their chances they can to market higher, they will. Yeah. Did Well, look, first of all, I the Spurs are I think tomorrow night. No, tonight, excuse me. It’s a late game, too. It doesn’t start till like 8:30 Central, right? So, that’s telling right there. They wanted it to be the prime time, the 6:30 on the West. Well, yeah, it’s going to be an exciting game. I cannot wait for it to start. uh Dallas Spurs. Interesting footnote or historically and we’ll see if it continues in this new generation of Spurs Mavericks ball, but I believe Matt I don’t have the exact year separation. Let’s just the point is what it reveals. I believe in like it’s like it was something like out of the last 14 seasons every time the Mavericks and Spurs plays and this includes during the Tim Duncan era, the championship era, the Kawawaii, Demar, all that time period. These games between Dallas Mavericks are usually separated by single digits every time. Every time this these games go to the wire and Vegas calls it, they’re seeing it another close game, Dallas by three. Uh ultimately, Matt, uh Spurs get the W or no? I think they do. I I think they finally break through. You know, I think even Victor’s first, you know, rookie year, I was going to say freshman year, even his rookie year, it was it was really close. You know, it came down to a turnover late game within a minute to play. You know, I think this is the year that they look the most polished they have. Even without Darren Fox, you know, like you mentioned, David Jones Garcia can go in and fill, you know, a third point guard spot if they need one. But I think Castle and Harper have looked great as point guards next to Victor. And I think that this team is about to I think they want to go out and make a statement. You know, five and0 in the preseason does not matter, you know, to them at all, you know, but it does kind of serve like I I mentioned this in a piece I did recently. It kind of serves as a barometer, you know, it tells them how they’re doing and and what the forecast is. And I mean, it’s looking a lot more positive than it has in the past. And I think that they’re, you know, they’re going to take that momentum, if anything, from the preseason and kind of continue rolling. Yeah, I think the Spurs do get it now. I do believe it will be a close game, but ultimately I think the Spurs are a little deeper than Dallas and I think that depth is really going to help San Antonio tonight. I got a close game, too. I think Spurs by five actually. So, I think it’d be a fun entertaining game. Crowd will definitely not be on the Spurs side, but I think this team can weather the storm and Victor looks like he is in beast mode right now. He’s ready to prove that he is a generational talent. He is Matt Guzman with Spurs on Sports Illustrated. Follow next matt gzma. Follow me on next at Jeff GP Spurs. When we get back, some Sohan news coming up next. Let’s be real. Making excuses won’t solve anything. We’ve all heard them before. It’s just stress. I’m tired. Or it happens to everyone sometimes. But when it comes to performance, sometimes your body just needs a little extra support. That’s where Rouette comes in. Rouette.com offers fast acting doctor prescribed treatment for ED designed to help you stop making excuses for and start making moves. If prescribed, your treatment ships directly straightly to your doctor. You just connect with a board-certified doctor. 100% online, no awkward waiting rooms, no inerson appointments. The process is fast, simple, private. It’s all handled by real doctors. It’s about confidence, connection, and getting back to the moments that matter. Visit rugg.com/locktonba to get 15% off your first order. Ruier makes it to get started. That’s rugg.com/lockton NBA. And don’t forget to use our code locked on NBA so they know that we sent you. Where you at? Stop making excuses. Start making moves that they’re going to take things day by day. And that’s just the most cookie cutter answer. Yeah. That he could have given. I think the the writing was on the wall that they weren’t keen on. They weren’t going to be in any rush to get this done. You know, just cuz he’s not extended right now doesn’t mean they don’t want to bring him back. You know, he can still go through restricted free agency and we’ll see what they come up with then. But no, I’m not overly surprised that a deal wouldn’t rush to get done before the season. Yeah, me neither. I I think uh this was not a surprise to me. I feel that the Spurs and just the NBA, the world that they’re in right now, the whole apron thing, and that really scares general managers uh when they’re assembling a roster. Does not mean the Spurs cannot resign him in the offseason. He’s a restricted free agent, everybody, and they have first dibs to match offers. But the the market will tell, you know, and I think, hey, I’m okay with it, too. I think it’ll spark a fire under Jeremy. I think he’s in the contract season. I think he’ll show out, not just to play for a deal in San Antonio or any other team that might have him on their radar. No, but the Spurs do have a glut right now. They have a glut in those those swing guysish uh bigs. they have, you know, he’s kind of a tweener. You know, is he a big, is he not a big, is he a four, is he a five? You know, is he a three? You know, we just don’t know. Definitely not a one. We know that. He ain’t a one. He ain’t a point guard. So, if you scratch that off your list, but yeah, I’m excited. I I think we’ll see what the Spurs do. not excited to see possibly see him leave, but excited to see if this is a sign of changes that they feel that maybe they’re better off bringing in a sharpshooter or bringing in, you know, a bigger forward uh for Victor and whatnot. But yeah, I think some Spurs fans, especially Sohan fans, were kind of like besides themselves saying, “What? What?” Because historically Spurs used to take care of their own and um from Kell to Devin to recently Castle Wimby. But then again, those were obvious. It’s just it was a little stunning but not surprising if you’re a Spurs fan. He is Matt Guzman with Spurs on Sports Illustrated. Follow him on X, Matt GZ. Matt, we appreciate you as always. Thank you for joining us here on Lockdown Spurs getting ready for the season. I know Matt’s excited and I know you’re all excited. Matt, thank you once again. We appreciate it. Everybody else, subscribe to Lockdown Spurs or get your favorite podcast. Uh yeah, iTunes, Spotify, Ken by Plus app, YouTube. We’ll be back tomorrow to uh well, I think tomorrow is going to be our our Project Marvel update. So, definitely look forward to that. It is a hot topic right now. I know the regular season started, but this is kind of big news in San Antonio right now, everybody. So, we’re going to have a special guest on discussing that and more. But yes, we will be back uh to Spurs basketball after that. Don’t forget tomorrow night after the game or sorry, excuse me, tonight after the game, pardon me. Thinking about tomorrow’s show, man. That’s why. at the game tonight. And don’t forget Casey and Devin Brown will be recapping the Spurs game versus Dallas. They’re kind of short recaps, but nevertheless, look forward to that is their debut. And then I think all three of us should be on lock on Spurs round table coming up soon. And don’t forget, go to visit Matt’s X at MattGzman for all his latest articles. So for Matt Guzman, I am Jeff Garcia. We’re going to put a lock in this episode of Lockdown Spurs. [Music]

The San Antonio Spurs take on Dallas to start the new season.

Host Jeff Garcia and guest Spurs on Sports Illustrated’s Matt Guzman break down the San Antonio Spurs’ offensive firepower and improved defense ahead of the team’s game against Dallas. They analyze the I-35 rivalry matchup, dissecting Dallas’ roster moves and the impact of missing stars.

Will Jeremy Sohan’s contract situation light a fire under the young forward? Can the Spurs’ depth overcome the Mavs?

0:00 Intro: Spurs season opener preview
3:05 Injury report and game odds
5:16 Analyzing Spurs’ strong preseason performance
8:43 Luke Kornet’s impressive preseason stats
11:27 Breaking down the Mavericks’ preseason
15:47 Predictions for Spurs vs Mavericks game

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