Photo by Mercedes Oliver/NBAE via Getty Images With the NBA Cup foolishness over, teams return to regular season basketball 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. It’s always interesting when two teams with almost identical records match up. Tonight is also a meeting between the overall top picks of the last two years, but I think that no one would argue that Victor Wembanyama isn’t making a bigger splash than the Hawks’ Zaccharie Risacher, who looks like he will be a very good player, but not the generational talent of the Spurs French phenom. A lot of the narrative around this game circles around the idea that Trae Young is having an off year, but I’m not sure that that’s true. Young isn’t scoring as much, but he’s leading the league in assists and involving his teammates more. I think this is the evolution of his game that couldn’t occur when he was paired in the backcourt with Dejounte Murray, who has moved on to the Pelicans. This Hawks team is dangerous, and the Spurs won’t have an easy time against Atlanta tonight. Zach Collins is listed as questionable tonight, but Keldon Johnson and Tre Jones are listed as probable on the injury report which should help with depth for the Silver and Black. It should be interesting to see the matchup between Wembanyama and Clint Capela, who could bother Victor with his length and quickness in the paint. I would expect Wembanyama to extend his range and force Capela to come out to the perimeter to defend him. It’s great to have basketball back after the Spurs have played only two games in the last 11 days, which probably was a good thing for a team with injury issues, but has negatively affected the rhythm of the squad. With roughly two thirds of the season to go, it’s about time to see if the Spurs are really as good as they’ve looked in the early season or whether they fade in the latter parts of the season which is much more road-heavy than the early part. After tonight, the Spurs play on the road 31 times vs just 24 times at home, and the Spurs currently have a 9-7 record in the Frost Bank arena, and are 4-6 on the road. Pounding the Rock on Playback Game Prediction: Chris Paul and Zach Collins will tag-team wrestle the referees and pin them to the floor during the fourth quarter. The crowd will cheer, but it will result in an extended suspension for both players. One final word: Go Spurs GOOOOOO!! San Antonio Spurs vs Atlanta HawksDecember 19, 2024 | 7:00 PM CTStreaming: NBA League PassTV: CW35 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.