Spurs vs. Pistons Wednesday NBA injury report, odds: Matchup features lowest-ever combined winning percentage this deep in season
The worst teams of the 2023-24 NBA season match up on Wednesday when San Antonio visits Detroit.
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If the NBA Draft was set up like the NFL's in that the team with the worst record selects first overall, then Wednesday's San Antonio (5-30) at Detroit (3-34) game would carry huge ramifications. Of course, the NBA has a lottery, so instead we have to settle for a matchup featuring the worst combined winning percentage a minimum of 35 games into a season in league history. The Spurs are road favorites for the first time this season at -3 on the SportsLine consensus.
The combined winning percentage of these teams is .111. The previous low this deep into a season was on Jan. 31, 1998, as the 8-35 Dallas Mavericks visited the 3-40 Denver Nuggets, a combined percentage of .128. It's the second time in NBA history that two teams with 30 or more losses in 40 or fewer games played have squared off. On January 8, 2022, the 7-30 Pistons defeated the 7-32 Orlando Magic, 97-92.
The only other NBA teams with single-digit wins this season are 8-26 Charlotte and 6-30 Washington. If the Spurs are going to be road favorites again this season without major injuries or resting players factoring into the other side, it might be at the Wizards on Jan. 20. They visit the Hornets the night before, but Charlotte should be favored.
The Spurs have been favored just once at home, when they were -3.5 on Oct. 27 against Houston. San Antonio won 126-122. Detroit likely would have been a short favorite here if it wasn't playing the second game of a back-to-back and operating without by far its best player in Cade Cunningham. He also missed Tuesday's 131-110 home loss to Sacramento with a left knee strain and will miss at least another week.
That means we won't get a matchup of former No. 1 picks against Spurs rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama, who comes off one of the best games of his young career Sunday. The young star touched up Cleveland for 24 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks and three assists in just 25 minutes. The 7-footer has now recorded five or more blocks in eight contests and is set at over/under 2.5 blocks for Wednesday with the Over a -164 favorite.
Detroit's loss to Sacramento on Tuesday was crushing if you took the Pistons +11. They were up by as many as 20 points, but from about midway through the second quarter to the 9:41 mark of the third, Sacramento went on a 37-7 run to take an 11-point lead. Detroit did not score a field goal for 10 minutes and 42 seconds during that run. And then with the game tied at 101-101 with 9:34 left in the fourth, Sacramento closed the game on a 30-9 run for the 131-110 win and easy cover.
Because the Pistons played Tuesday, they haven't released an injury report. It's unclear whether Monty Williams would rest anyone in the second half of a back-to-back, but with a rare legitimate chance to win a game, it would be a bit surprising. If someone were to sit, and this is just my speculation, it would 34-year-old guard Bojan Bogdanovic (19.8 points per game), as he's potential trade bait and the team may not want to risk an injury. Bogdanovic has averaged 23.6 points in his last seven outings against San Antonio.
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