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The San Antonio Spurs actually have 48 wins already this season. The Utah Jazz and Spurs have previously in history finished the season with 48 wins 48 different times. With a win tonight the Spurs could just end up coasting the rest of the season and still finish in the top 20% of Jazz/Spurs teams. Of course, on the flipside, with a win tonight the Utah Jazz could hand the Spurs their 10th loss of the season. The Jazz won the season series against the Spurs last season (2-1), however, it's clear that the Spurs just weren't trying in one of those games. This season San Antonio has won both games this season (118-81, 123-98), but the final two are in Utah. The first one of those is tonight!
Utah is 57-30 in Utah when playing these guys, and 19-10 at home overall this season. San Antonio is 20-9 on the road, so I don't even know if anything matters anymore. The Spurs are a great team, but they haven't tangled with a healthy-ish Jazz team before in 2015-16. In the first game there was no Dante Exum and Rudy Gobert. In the second game there was no Dante Exum, Alec Burks, Derrick Favors, and Rudy Gobert. Tonight they'll get everyone not named Dante and Alec, but also have to deal with Shelvin Mack.
I don't think Mack is going to put the clamps on Tony Parker. But he's going to be someone they haven't seen this season before. It could make a difference. The Spurs played last night (beating the Sacramento Kings with ease), and are not scheduled to rest anyone tonight. Fun!
It seems like that could be read as "we will win the season series now, and later on in the season when we play again we shall rest."
Hopefully this is a good game tonight.