A lot of the good vibes around the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 5-0 start began to shift after a 116-97 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Sunday. Not only were the Spurs dismantled by a short-handed Suns squad, but they also lost Dylan Harper to a calf strain that should sideline him for a couple of weeks. They\u2019ll have a chance to bounce back and reclaim those good vibes with some reinforcements joining them in Los Angeles against the Lakers.<\/p>\n
The Spurs have changed the injury designation of a few key players for the first time this season. Jeremy Sochan, Kelly Olynyk, and Lindy Waters III are all questionable for Wednesday night\u2019s game. De\u2019Aaron Fox and Luke Kornet remain out with the newly injured Harper. San Antonio\u2019s depth is dwindling before its eyes, so any help they can get will be needed, especially against a Lakers team that has won four games in a row.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles has done much of their winning while being short-handed. LeBron James has yet to suit up this season. Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves have both missed time. Doncic will play on Wednesday, while Reaves is questionable. Both are having incredible seasons. Doncic is averaging 41.3 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 8.3 assists, while Reaves is putting up 31.3 points and 9.3 assists per game. They\u2019ve driven the Lakers\u2019 offense to a top-10 rating in the NBA.<\/p>\n
Sochan\u2019s return couldn\u2019t come at a better time, as the Spurs will need their best defensive effort to slow down the Lakers.<\/p>\n
November 5th, 2025 | 9 PM CT<\/p>\n
Watch: ESPN | Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)<\/p>\n
Spurs Injuries: Dylan Harper \u2013 Out (calf), De\u2019Aaron Fox \u2013 Out (hamstring), Luke Kornet \u2013 Out (ankle), Kelly Olynyk \u2013 Questionable (heel), Jeremy Sochan \u2013 Questionable (wrist), Lindy Waters III \u2013 Questionable (eye), Harrison Ingram \u2013 Questionable (G League), Riley Minix \u2013 Questionable (G League)<\/p>\n
Lakers Injuries: LeBron James \u2013 Out (back), Maxi Kleber \u2013 Out (abdominal), Adou Thiero \u2013 Out (knee), Gabe Vincent \u2013 Out (ankle), Jaxson Hayes \u2013 Probable (ankle), Austin Reaves \u2013 Questionable (groin)<\/p>\n
Sochan will be a crucial figure for the team on Wednesday night. He\u2019s historically gotten the Luka assignment and played admirably. There is no such thing as a \u201cLuka-stopper,\u201d but Sochan can put up a pretty good fight with his combination of strength, size, athleticism, and tenacity. It\u2019ll be interesting to see how many minutes he plays, given it is potentially his first game back from injury. On another night, San Antonio might ease him into it, but the Spurs are running out of bodies, and they\u2019ll need him. It\u2019ll also be interesting to see how he fits into the Spurs\u2019 offensive unit. His cutting should be a big weapon for San Antonio if the Lakers send multiple defenders at Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n
Wednesday may be the first glimpse we get at the newly acquired Olynyk. The veteran center is a big body who can shoot the ball from three. He\u2019s not known for his defense, but he has more size than Bismack Biyombo, who had been manning the backup center position in Olynyk and Kornet\u2019s absence. Olynyk doesn\u2019t quite meet Kornet\u2019s standards as a backup big, but he should give the Spurs another offensive weapon who can space the floor next to Wembanyama, should they want to play two bigs.<\/p>\n
Teams have been deploying a similar strategy to stop Wembanyama. Guard him with a smaller wing defender who can get leverage and keep up with him on the perimeter, and send a double team pretty much as soon as he catches the ball. Wembanyama and the Spurs have struggled to adapt to the defensive attention the superstar has gotten. Stephon Castle and Harper have been the only players who have taken advantage of the lanes available to them as teams focus on Wemby. The team around him must take advantage of those opportunities, but it\u2019s the superstar big man who will take San Antonio the furthest. He will have to adjust to more defensive attention and find a way to impact the game on the offensive end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lot of the good vibes around the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 5-0 start began to shift after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,26732],"class_list":{"0":"post-38912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-la","9":"tag-la-headlines","10":"tag-la-news","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","13":"tag-los-angeles-news","14":"tag-spurs-game-previews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}