Photo by Ronald Cortes/Getty Images Jeremy Sochan’s return comes just in time as the Silver and Black try to qualify for the NBA Cup knockout tournament Welcome to the Game Thread. Veterans of the Game Thread know how we do things around here, but for all you newbies we have a few rules. Our community guidelines apply and basically say be cool, no personal attacks, don’t troll and don’t swear too much. The prescription for the Spurs is simple—Win tonight’s game against the Suns and you’re in ... the knockout rounds of the NBA Cup. They would be one of the eight teams contending for a funny-looking trophy that looks like half a basketball on a fancy stand and a nice mid-season cash bonus. It’s really just a contest for bragging rights, but if the Spurs qualify, they have a right to brag, because their improvement from last year’s 22-60 record has been nothing short of amazing so far. Tonight, they are on the garish NBA Cup court of the Phoenix Suns, who are surging behind the play of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal. The Suns will need help from the Jazz to win Group B, because if they lose tonight, they would need to beat the Spurs by a ginormous margin to be in the running for the one wild card spot in the West, currently held by the Mavericks with a +41, compared to the Suns +19. So the Suns need to beat the Spurs by 22 points plus whatever the Mavericks win by, or hope that the Grizzlies beat the Mavs. If the Suns take the lead tonight, they are going to try and run up the score, which is expected in any NBA Cup game. The Spurs have been on a tear recently, winning five of their last six games, and they expect to get Jeremy Sochan back tonight, who has recovered from a broken thumb way ahead of the expected schedule. If he’s effective tonight, he could help keeping Booker in check and could assist with one of San Antonio’s weaknesses this season, which has been rebounding. The Spurs only had 22 wins last season, but three of those were against the Suns. It would be great to see the Silver and Black repeat that dominance in the 2024-2025 campaign. The Future’s So Bright That I gotta wear my sunglasses at night... Pounding the Rock on Playback Come watch the @poundingtherock crew react to Spurs-Lakers tonight on Playback! pic.twitter.com/J26htoKV3g— Jacob Douglas (@JacobmDouglas) November 27, 2024 Game Prediction: The Spurs bench will wear shades because of the glare from the orange court surface. One final word: Go Spurs GOOOOOO!! San Antonio Spurs at Phoenix SunsDecember 3, 2024 | 8:00 PM CTStreaming: NBA League PassTV: Fanduel Sports Southwest Reminder: It is against site policy to post links to illegal streams in the comments, but it is not against site policy to exchange email addresses, for instance.