Lakers beat the Spurs for the second night in a row

Nov 27, 2022 - 3:35 AM

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On the second night of a back-to-back, a rematch from yesterday, Los Angeles got the job done against San Antonio. They won 143-138 with Anthony Davis out due to a hamstring injury he suffered the night before.

The first was an up-and-down quarter for the purple and gold. LeBron was taking highly contested threes and missing them, San Antonio was able to score in the paint with ease sans Davis and Russell Westbrook was coming off the bench and producing well. Thanks to a wild final play where Wenyen Gabriel stole the ball near midcourt and hit a buzzer-beater three, the Lakers only trailed by one after the first despite being thoroughly outplayed the majority of the quarter.

In the second quarter, San Antonio continued to push the pace and score in the paint. The Lakers were settling for long jumpers, and the Spurs were able to get the boards and run. This terrible combination led to an avalanche of Spurs runs resulting in the Lakers trailing by as many as eleven in the quarter.

Unfortunately for San Antonio, the frenetic pace may have led to an injury to Jacob Poetl, who went down in the second and was ruled out for the rest of the game with right quad soreness. The Lakers continued to fight back and regain the lead. Dennis Schroder played well, scoring 16 points. Wenyen contributed 6 points in his 8 minutes of play, and the half ended with Russ and LeBron connecting on a SportsCenter-worthy alley-oop to give the Lakers a 70-68 lead after two.

So, did the Lakers third-quarter woes rear their ugly head on Saturday? No, they did not. The Lakers were able to overcome multiple Spurs runs, a Russell Westbrook injury scare midway through the quarter (along with a severe elbow to the head he took from Collins), and San Antonio dominating the paint with 66 of their 138 coming from the inside. Despite all this, the Lakers showed a level of fight and perseverance that is to be respected. They executed on their free throws, going 86.5% from the charity stripe, shot 17-33 from beyond the arch and ended the third up 106-97.

It was smooth sailing for Los Angeles in the fourth as they beat San Antonio for the second night in a row. LeBron went nuclear from deep, going 7-12 from beyond the arch, a perfect 10-10 from the charity stripe, and ending the night with 39 points and 11 rebounds. San Antonio made a fake comeback midway through the fourth getting as close as seven, but Lonnie Walker IV scored 10 consecutive points for the Lakers closing the door on the Spurs. The Lakers improved to 7-11 on the season.

The Lakers are now done with the easy part of their November schedule. Nine of their next ten games will be against teams above .500, so the sooner the Lakers can get Anthony Davis back, the better. We’ll see if AD is available for the Lakers next game against the Pacers on Monday at 7:30 PDT.

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