Spurs' 11-game win streak meets Utah's 11-game skid and thin frontcourt

San Antonio arrives at the Delta Center on Sunday at 5:00 PM ET as an 11-2 team riding 11 straight wins, while Utah is 1-12 and has lost 11 in a row. The central question is whether a Jazz frontcourt missing several big men can do anything to interrupt a Spurs side that has won every regular-season meeting in the recent record.

The streaks match the records. San Antonio has won six straight on the road, and Utah has lost six straight at home. Streaks describe what has happened rather than what comes next, and records this early in the season rest on a modest number of games. Still, every piece of form here points in the same direction.

The head-to-head record reinforces that. The Spurs won 117-111 at Utah on October 29, the closest of the regular-season meetings, then 119-97 in San Antonio on November 3. In January they won 126-109 in Utah and 123-110 in San Antonio. Utah's only win in the set came in preseason, 119-109 on October 13, which carries little weight.

Friday's results sharpen the contrast. The Spurs beat the Warriors 123-85 after opening with an 18-0 run, and Victor Wembanyama had 12 points and 12 rebounds. Utah lost 125-118 to Houston for its 11th straight defeat. Two nights earlier, Orlando beat the Jazz 123-108. Utah has allowed 125 and 123 points in its last two games.

The injury report is lopsided. Utah is without Lauri Markkanen, who has a non-displaced fracture in his right hand and will miss at least one month. Jaren Jackson Jr. has a torn MCL and is expected to be out 6-to-8 weeks. Jusuf Nurkic is out, though he has begun on-court activities. Trey Alexander is out with a left knee bone bruise, and Jaxson Hayes is day-to-day after leaving Friday's game with a left knee issue. San Antonio is missing Tobias Harris with a calf injury, an absence that looks far less damaging than Utah's frontcourt losses.

The evidence conflicts very little. The best counterpoint is that the October 29 game in Utah was competitive, and a single result can swing in any matchup. Utah's roster has also changed since then, and the absences listed above are recent. Taken together, the form, the meetings and the personnel all describe a mismatch, with the caveat that the sample of games this season is still small.