Though it was expected, not having Victor Wembanyama Saturday against the Memphis Grizzlies is going to make breaking that skid even tougher. Wembanyama has missed the Spurs' last five games after being diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder.

At 23-29, the Spurs occupy just the No. 12 seed in a crowded Western Conference. They are a scant 3.5 games behind the No. 10-seeded Golden State Warriors (28-27), but without their best player, they seem doomed now to miss the play-in tournament entirely and head straight for the lottery.

The players began to immediately rally around each other after learning they would be without their superstar player for the rest of the season, Chris Paul said