The visiting San Antonio Spurs and Atlanta Hawks will have their ailing stars available when the teams meet on Friday night, although both stars could play diminished minutes as they continue to regain their health.
San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama has been dealing with a left calf injury that kept him out for 12 games. He returned for the NBA Cup semifinals and final on Saturday and Tuesday, respectively, and came off the bench again on Thursday in the Spurs’ 119-94 victory over the Washington Wizards.
Wembanyama played 17 minutes and collected 15 points and eight rebounds in that game, as the team said it would restrict his minutes so he could play at Atlanta in the second leg of a back-to-back set.
The Hawks, meanwhile, saw the return of All-Star Trae Young on Thursday in a 133-126 loss at Charlotte.
Young had been out since Oct. 29, missing 22 games with a right MCL sprain. He returned to practice this week and originally was assigned to the club’s G League affiliate, but Atlanta opted to activate him. He had eight points and 10 assists in 20 minutes against the Hornets.
This will be the second of two meetings between the teams this season. The Spurs prevailed 135-126 when the clubs played in San Antonio on Nov. 20. Neither team had their star player that night as the Spurs won their third straight game.
The Spurs have won four games in a row — they lost to the New York Knicks in the NBA Cup final, and that game does not count in the standings — while the Hawks have lost five of their last seven games.
Wembanyama won’t have to deal with veteran Atlanta center Kristaps Porzingis, who is out with an extended illness. His absence has forced the Hawks to rely heavily on the 6-foot-10 Onyeka Okongwu and spindly reserve Mouhamed Gueye to patrol the inside.
Wembanyama is averaging 25.1 points, 12.3 rebounds and 3.9 assists this season. In four career games against Atlanta, he has averaged 28.3 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.5 blocks.
“Love the intentionality,” San Antonio coach Mitch Williams said of Wembanyama’s return. “It is just going to take time. He wants to do it all. He doesn’t have a lot of minutes to do it.”
Young also likely will have his minutes restricted on Friday in the second half of his team’s back-to-back. Coach Quin Snyder acknowledged it will be a process to get Young integrated back into the rotation.
“It’s going to be a process for us to for everybody to get acclimated, and for Trey to continue to get in shape, all the different things that you know that are required when you put a group together,” Snyder said. “It’s good to have a first step in that process and be able to look at it and continue to try to find ways to be better as a group.”
The loss to Charlotte ruined Jalen Johnson’s career-high scoring effort of 43 points. He also had 11 rebounds and nine assists, just missing his fifth straight triple-double.
–Field Level Media
