LeBron-less Lakers survive Spurs’ late rally, escape with victory
Anthony Davis has 37 points and 10 rebounds and the Lakers hold off Victor Wembanyama (30 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks) and San Antonio, 122-119, handing the Spurs their 18th consecutive loss.
SAN ANTONIO — No LeBron James, no problem – at least that’s what it looked like was going to be the case for the Lakers in Wednesday night’s 122-119 victory over the struggling San Antonio Spurs.
Even with James sidelined because of a left calf contusion and the Lakers playing on the second night of a back-to-back, they were the superior team.
And they mostly played like it behind the strong play of Anthony Davis (37 points, 10 rebounds, four assists), taking a 63-50 lead into the second half and extending the cushion to 92-74 into the fourth quarter.
But the Lakers (15-10) let the Spurs (3-20) stick around for too long. And with each moment that the Lakers struggled to close the game out, the Spurs’ confidence grew.
“We can’t get bored with the details,” Coach Darvin Ham said. “That’s the biggest thing. We gotta add common sense to our talent. It’s not so much about who we’re playing, what their record is. It’s about us and the way we wanna represent ourselves every time we step out on the floor: trying to get better, trying to build winning habits and be consistent at those winning habits.”
With each minute that the Lakers failed to put the game away, Victor Wembanyama, the No. 1 pick in June’s NBA draft, seemed to make an additional play that fueled the Spurs and their home crowd.
There was the putback dunk over Christian Wood to trim the Spurs’ deficit to 94-76 early in the fourth. His layup in transition and ensuing free throw cut the deficit to 108-99 with four minutes left.
Wembanyama sandwiched back-to-back 3-pointers around a Davis steal and dunk to cut the Lakers’ lead to 117-113 with a little over a minute remaining and the visitors struggling to maintain their lead.
Malaki Branham (19 points) stole a bad pass from D’Angelo Russell on the Lakers’ next possession, making it 117-115, before Wembanyama, who scored 14 of his 30 points in the fourth, was fouled on a layup attempt to earn a pair of free throws.
“Can’t foul,” Davis said. “Can’t give up 3s. We got to take care of the ball. And execute on the offensive end. It’s simple. Nothing that they did. We had some turnovers, some miscommunication offensively – some defensively. That’s really it.”
Wembanyama split his foul shots, reducing the Lakers’ lead to one with 22 seconds left. With the Spurs intentionally fouling late, Davis made two free throws to put the Lakers ahead, 119-116. Wembanyama then fouled out for the first time in his career after sticking his leg out on a missed 3-point attempt with 8.8 seconds remaining.
“He doesn’t stop competing,” Ham said of the 7-foot-4 Wembanyama. “His shot is coming along, definitely not broken, a little streaky at times. But when the game was hanging in the balance, he made some big plays for them.”
Davis and Taurean Prince sealed the game with free throws with the game essentially out of reach.
The Lakers, who won for the fifth time in six games, had six players score in double figures, including Prince (17 points, five assists, 4 for 10 from 3-point range) and Austin Reaves (15 points, eight assists off the bench).
Rui Hachimura, who started in place of James, finished with 13 points and seven rebounds. Russell had a 12-point, 10-assist double-double.
On a night when they were without James, the Lakers almost lost Davis, too. In the opening seconds, he rolled his left ankle following a spin move against Wembanyama. He writhed in pain on the baseline, but he stretched and ran during a timeout to test the injury and refused to exit.
“Giving my team a chance to win,” Davis said. “I know when I’m on the floor playing, my team has a higher chance of winning than me being out because of my presence defensively and my presence offensively. We’re trying to win basketball games.”
Davis finished 13 for 23 from the field and scored 24 of his points in the first half, which included bullying Wembanyama out of position under the rim to clear space for a monstrous, one-handed dunk on the rookie with 3:57 remaining.
“An offensive possession is never a bad possession if we give A.D. the ball,” Reaves said. “We shouldn’t have had to learn it. His body of work, his whole career has basically proven that. But I feel like that’s something that we’ve learned is anytime we can give him the ball anywhere on the court against anybody, we like our chances because he’s such a skilled player.
“And with the force that he’s playing with right now, it’s beautiful to see. So I don’t know what everybody else thinks, but I want him to keep doing the same thing. He doesn’t need to defer to anybody. He just needs to just go get (his).”
Wednesday was Davis’ third consecutive game scoring at least 37 points, including the 41 he had in the In-Season Tournament championship game victory over the Indiana Pacers, which doesn’t count in the regular-season record or statistics. He made a pair of 3-pointers Wednesday, the first time he’s made at least one shot behind the arc in consecutive games since the playoffs last spring.
“Finding my shot,” Davis said. “Of course, being more aggressive. But when my teammates are doing a good job, it’s easier for me to operate when guys are making their shots.”
In addition to his scoring total, Wembanyama added 13 rebounds and six blocked shots. Keldon Johnson had 28 points, eight assists and five rebounds for the Spurs, who scored 45 points in the fourth quarter but saw their franchise-record losing streak reach 18 consecutive games.
The Lakers will play the Spurs, who have not won since Nov. 2, again on Friday to close out their three-game road trip.
“We’re fortunate to get that W,” Ham said. “They’re a young team. Their record may say they’re struggling, but they have a bunch of young guys out there just trying to establish themselves as pros and play and do the right thing, play the right way.
“We’re fortunate to pull that one out, but we’ll have a day off, coming off of back-to-back. We’ll watch it on film Friday morning.”