After an unexpectedly torrid start to the season, the San Antonio Spurs have been scuffling as of late, with four straight losses.

And while there may be some questions surrounding the legitimacy of some of those losses, the reality is that the Spurs would have been doing exceptionally well to come out of that stretch at 2-2 as it was, facing an a long and inexhaustible Raptors team, and then the world-destroying monstrosity that Nikola Jokić has been over the past few years.

There’s a real opportunity for a victory in this one though, with the Grizzlies missing what amounts to most of their rim defense in Jaren Jackson Jr. and the thundering kiwi that is Stephen Adams.

Unfortunately, the Spurs will be missing one of their best front-court contributors in the energetic yet seemingly ill-fated Zach Collins. Though his counting stats might not look like much, Collins’ per-36 stats (17/9.5/5.7/2.5/1.4) are a solid indicators of just how effective he’s been as the back-up to the similarly efficient Jakob Poeltl.

Make no mistake, these Grizzlies are still a buzz-saw when Ja Morant is at his best (as he has frequently been against the Spurs) and boast a remarkable amount of starter-caliber depth, so the Spurs will need some combination of Gorgui Dieng, Charles Bassey, Isiah Roby, and Jeremy Sochan to take advantage of Memphis’ one (temporarily) glaring weakness.

Tank or no tank, it’s time to see what these young’uns are made of.