The San Antonio Spurs will stay on the road tonight and battle the NBA’s best Boston Celtics. The Spurs lost by 33 points earlier in the season when they hosted Boston, but the Spurs are a reinvigorated team and have been trending upwards.
Boston is a formidable opponent, even for the Spurs. Despite trending upwards, the Spurs are still a young–and not great–team that has a lot of learning to do.
Dec 31, 2023; San Antonio, Texas, USA; Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis (8) and San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) go after the opening tip in the first half at Frost Bank Center.
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The Celtics are 19-0 at home this season, but they will have to host Victor Wembanyama. The rookie center is yet to be reevaluated after his ankle injury, but the 27 minutes he played against the Hawks on Monday suggest that he is fully healthy.
The Spurs are not fully healthy, however. Charles Bassey, Zach Collins, Sidy Cissoko, and David Duke Jr. are all out. Dominick Barlow is questionable. The Celtics have Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Derrick White all listed as questionable.
Despite being heavy underdogs, we still have our three best bets, powered by the lines at SI Sportsbook.
The Lines
Point spread: Celtics -15.5 (-118)/Spurs +15.5 (-110)
Moneyline: Celtics (-1786)/Spurs (+825)
Over/under: 237.5
Our Picks
Safe pick: Victor Wembanyama OVER 20.5 points (-125)
Porzingis is most likely going to miss this game because Boston doesn’t need him to win. Even if he does play, a big-man duo of Porzingis and Al Horford is not nearly athletic enough to stop Wembanyama down low. He has scored 26 points in each of his last two games, even after going scoreless in the first half against the Atlanta Hawks. Expect him to get plenty of shots up, and make most of them.
Opponent pick: Jayson Tatum OVER 27.5 points (-133)
Tatum is averaging 27.2 points over his last five games, and the Spurs’ defense is not enough to stop him. Yes, Jeremy Sochan might cause problems for Tatum, but he won’t be guarding him all game. Tatum scored 25 points on the Spurs earlier in the season, and he took fewer shots than average to do it. If the Celtics don’t trot out a full roster, expect Tatum to shoot more often than usual, and when he does, he tends to make them.
Team pick: Spurs +15.5 (-110)
The last game the Spurs lost by 15 or more points? New Year’s Eve, to the Celtics. Since then, the Spurs are 2-5, but all signs point towards forward progress. The Celtics, on average, win at home by 15.4 points, but as Wembanyama said, “Every game is a statement from now on.” The young Spurs are putting the league on notice the only way they can: by not getting blown out.