Photo by Ronald Cortes/Getty Images The Silver and Black travel across the East River for a match against Brooklyn 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. There are a couple of different ways of looking at the Christmas Day loss in Madison Square Garden on Christmas Day, you could be happy that the Spurs were competitive against one of the expected contenders for this season’s title, or disappointed that they couldn’t close the deal after playing them close for the entire game. Or you could hold both ideas in your head simultaneously, and even though you’re excited that the team is competitive against the league’s best, a little impatient that all of this promise is still a work in progress. Patience is a virtue, but time marches inexorably forward, so you cannot wait forever for a plan to come together. But maybe early in year two of the career of the most intriguing star to enter the league in decades is a little too soon to become frustrated at the lack of progress. The Spurs are 0-2 on the current road trip, and a trip to Barclays Center might just be what the Spurs need to get back on the winning side of things. But while the Nets are just 12-18 in the weaker Eastern Conference, they just defeated the Milwaukee Bucks last night. They also have one of the tougher center matchups against Wembanyama with Nic Claxton who is long and quick and more physical than the French phenom. Cam Thomas can score from anywhere, and perhaps Coach Johnson will put Jeremy Sochan on him to limit his shot-making. The Spurs will need someone besides Victor Wembanyama to step up tonight on the offensive end, and maybe Devin Vassell can come back with scoring after a lackluster outing against the Knicks. Harrison Barnes was on the court in Madison Square Garden, but he was mostly missing from the box score and he’ll need to improve on that performance tonight. After the Spurs backup centers, Charles Bassey and Zach Collins have been DNP CD for the last two games, they should play some tonight against the Nets who have more length than the Knicks, although the Knicks didn’t need length to destroy the Spurs smallball lineup on the boards on Wednesday. The ideal outcome would be the Spurs taking control of the game early tonight and not letting the home crowd getting into the game. The raucous home crowds in Philly and New York City really helped the Knicks and Sixers close out the last two, while the Spurs, who haven’t played many road games so far this season, made critical mistakes that cost them opportunities at winning. The Silver and Black will need to turn that around to become the kind of contender we expect them to become. Pounding the Rock on Playback Game Prediction: Jeremy Sochan will ride the train to the game, but no one in the train will pay him any mind, because bright green hair is pretty normal on the subway. One final word: Go Spurs GOOOOOO!! San Antonio Spurs at Brooklyn NetsDecember 27, 2024 | 6:30 AM CTStreaming: 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.