No World Cup tonight, just a loaded, 12-game NBA Wednesday with a marquee rematch in San Antonio and a full NHL slate alongside it. Thirteen college basketball games and a couple of college football matchups round out the board.
Marquee: Mavericks at Spurs (9:30 PM ET, ESPN)
San Antonio has won five straight behind Victor Wembanyama, who is averaging monster numbers including a career-high 43-point, 34-shot night against Minnesota three days ago (ESPN). Dallas comes in banged up, with Yuta Watanabe and multiple rotation players already marked out on tonight's injury report, and the Mavericks have already dropped two of their first meetings with the Spurs this season. San Antonio sits at +290 to win the title, second only to Oklahoma City, and tonight looks like another step in that case.
Vegas line (ESPN): Spurs -11.5, total 226.5, Mavericks +411 on the moneyline, Spurs -545.
Also tonight
- 76ers at Pistons (7:00 PM ET, ESPN). Two of the NBA's hottest teams meet in Detroit: Philadelphia is 7-1, the Pistons are 6-1, and this is the night's other national-TV window.
- Bucks at Celtics (7:30 PM ET). Milwaukee is off to a rough 1-6 start without a healthy supporting cast around Giannis Antetokounmpo. Boston, at 5-2, has looked like a legitimate top-four team in the East again.
- Cavaliers at Thunder (8:00 PM ET). Oklahoma City is defending its title and sits 5-2, with Cleveland (4-3) making the trip as one of the East's steadier early-season outfits.
- Blackhawks at Panthers (7:30 PM ET, TNT, truTV). Florida is chasing a third straight Stanley Cup and gets a Chicago team still finding its footing, with Patrick Kane out for the Hawks.
- Raptors at Nuggets (9:00 PM ET). Toronto has been one of the league's surprise stories early at 4-3, on the road against a Denver team still working out its rotation at 3-3.
Between Wemby's Spurs trying to validate their title odds against a hobbled Dallas team and two more nationally televised NBA games before 8 PM, it's a night where the league's early-season order gets tested in real time.
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