Who's playing in Spurs vs Suns? Latest Sochan injury news

The Polish Prince is expected to make his return in tonight's final group play game in the Emirates NBA Cup against the Phoenix Suns. It's the first time these teams will match up this season, and although it's only December, there are several implications for this game. Fans hoped the Spurs would finally have their full squad ready to suit up tonight, but that won't be the case.

Spurs and Suns will both miss important role players

Tre Jones suffered a shoulder injury in Sunday's game comeback win against the Sacramento Kings, and the ailment will force the backup point guard to miss Tuesday's league pass special. San Antonio has not announced a timetable for Jones, but that's not unusual. They play injuries a little close to the vest so as not to put undue pressure on the player.

But the Spurs won't be the only team compromised in the game of aliens.

Jusuf Nurkic is having the worst shooting season of his career since his sophomore season in the NBA. He even had a 0-7 performance a couple of weeks ago, but you can't teach size, and not having him in the lineup makes Phoenix a very small team. The Spurs should have a rebounding advantage against a team that enters the night ranked 18 in that category.

Bradley Beal's 'probable' designation suggests he'll play, so don't even hype yourselves up to believe that weapon won't be ready to go. The Spurs' defense will need to be ready to lock in against one of the league's most prolific scoring trios. Recent history says they have everything they need to win this game, despite walking on the floor as a -7.5 underdog.

Spurs won last year's season series 3-1 against Phoenix

It's always nice to beat up on the Suns. It harkens back to the days of bloody Steve Nash noses and Tony Parker spin cycles. Phoenix is another old foe of San Antonio's—an organization that has lived in the shadow of the Silver and Black's greatness. That beef hasn't been nearly as intense as it was during the late 2000s, but the dominance must be maintained.

The last game these two played against each other was on March 25 of the 2023-24 season, and the Spurs won by two points. The Suns had their treacherous three-headed monster, while SA was without their Alien defenders. San Antonio still found a way to win the game due to a couple of 26-point performances from Devin Vassell and Jeremy Sochan, who also grabbed 18 boards.

Zach Collins put up 18 points, and Keldon Johnson chipped in another 14. It was another full team effort, and SA will need to be ready for that type of display again. Phoenix isn't the most stoutly built defensive team, but they can score points. If the Spurs aren't careful, they could find themselves trying to climb out of another hole with a more formidable grave digger than in games past.

If San Antonio pulls this off, they'll enter the next round of the Emirates NBA Cup—the knockout round. But that's not the only thing at stake. We're a quarter of the way into the season, and although there's still a lot of time, the Western Conference is shaping up to be another slobber-knocker, so all wins and losses matter.

Phoenix is half a game ahead of SA, who have been clear about their desire to make the postseason this year. The Spurs are sitting in the tenth spot, but the teams are so tightly bunched together that they're also only one and a half games behind the fourth-seeded Golden State Warriors.

The Silver and Black are proving to be much better than experts believed. They're on a 45-game win pace, and they've already shown they can beat the best teams in the league after taking down OKC, Golden State, and Houston this season. At this rate, it's easy to believe they can earn a playoff spot outright, but in order to do that, they need to win games like this.

Update 18:54: Sochan is available

The Spurs have officially made Jeremy Sochan available for his first game since he was injured on November 4 against the LA Clippers.