The Dallas Mavericks go into San Antonio on Wednesday facing a Spurs team that has gone from a 0-2 start to five straight wins, with Victor Wembanyama in the middle of the run. The 8:30 p.m. game puts Dallas back in front of the same opponent that beat it 122-106 in the first meeting of the season.
Wembanyama has become the center of the matchup by force. He followed back-to-back games of 36 and 43 points last week by playing 24 minutes in the Spurs' 119-97 win over the Utah Jazz on Monday, and Dallas has to solve that version of him after he finished the first game between the teams with 23 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots.
The numbers make the stakes plain. San Antonio is 5-2, Dallas is 4-3, and the last time the Mavericks had Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving together, they beat the Houston Rockets 116-111. That matters because the first Spurs-Mavericks game came without either one: Flagg sat with a shoulder injury and Irving was held out for injury management.
Dallas has some tools, but not many extra ones built for a night like this. Daniel Gafford has been averaging 1.9 blocked shots per game and had seven or more rebounds in five of the Mavericks' first seven outings, so he gives the defense size and rim pressure. But the work cannot rest on him alone if Wembanyama keeps stretching the floor and finishing through contact the way he has lately.
The wrinkle is that San Antonio's fast start did not begin smoothly. The Spurs opened 0-2, then turned that into five straight wins, and their first meeting with Dallas already showed how much damage they can do when Wembanyama gets loose. Dylan Harper added 22 points in that 122-106 win, while Dallas was chasing the game from the opening stretch.
There is also the question of health behind the Mavericks' plans. Dereck Lively II and Santi Aldama are still waiting to get healthy, though Aldama is close to making his Mavericks debut. That leaves Dallas thin enough that the same matchup can look very different from one week to the next, especially against a team that has already proven it can punish any gap.
The Spurs are still carrying the label of last season's NBA Finalists from the Western Conference, and Wednesday's game is another chance to show that their surge is not a short burst. For Dallas, the next step is simpler: survive the front line, stay in touch early, and make the game look nothing like the first one.
