Spurs vs Celtics feels bigger than a regular-season game—for good reason

The Spurs and Celtics are two of the premier franchises in the NBA, and they face off tonight at the TD Garden in Boston. We're in early January, so ordinarily, this would be a regular-schmegular game, but what if I told you that San Antonio has lost six straight to this organization? That means Victor Wembanyama has yet to beat Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown.

They came into this season with several losing streaks to snap. They've done so with the Rockets (3), the Bulls (6), and now, they can add the Celtics to the list. Their new longest losing streak is to the Cleveland Cavaliers. They started the year on a five-game skid against Donovan Mitchell's crew and have already lost their two meetings with them this season. They won't get another shot until next year.

We don't want that for the Celtics. It's painful enough for there to be one fan base with those kinds of bragging rights over us. There doesn't need to be two. So, this is their first chance to get that monkey off of their back while adding another superstar to Wemby's belt of conquered foes. That's interesting enough as it is, but there's much more on the line between these two ball clubs.

The Spurs' and Celtics' goals are intertwined

Mitch Johnson (+320) is only slightly ahead of Joe Mazzulla (+350) in FanDuel's odds to win Coach of the Year. JB Bickerstaff is the only coach ahead of SA's leader, so he needs to be moving up, not down. Both teams are coming into the game as number two seeds in their respective conferences, so it's going to be a heavyweight bout, and I expect those lines to move, pending the victor. (pun intended)

After listening to Johnson talk about the award, he doesn't seem like he cares about it that much, but when has that ever stopped the fan base from wanting it for their guy? Ex-coach Greg Popovich only won the award three times, but we all know that number could have been more. The last time he took him the trophy was for the 2013-14 season. The Silver and Black's leadership is well overdue for recognition.

Lastly, Victor Wembanyama is fifth on the NBA's MVP Ladder, so there are four players ahead of him. Jaylen Brown is one of them. Beating him in his building, especially since they've been playing so well lately (8-2 in their last 10 games), should give Vic a boost. With all the time he's missed, head-to-head matchups are more important if he wants to make history and become the youngest to win the award.

Derrick Rose currently holds that title, winning the 2011 MVP award at 22 years old. Wemby just turned 22 as well, but they measure by days, and the Spurs' star center would still be younger than Rose was by the time the trophy is presented. Of course, he has to stay on the floor first, but we're assuming health here. He's already been robbed of a DPOY. It'd be cool to become the youngest MVP ever.

As an aside, Luke Kornet is returning to the city housing the team he won a championship for the first time since joining the Spurs. San Antonio also gets a chance to see beloved ex-Silver and Black hooper Derrick White. There's a lot of meat on the bone of this game, and fans are about to get full off of it when the ball tips.