It's hard to fault the effort, but the Lakers—who added LeBron James to the list of guys in street clothes, to go along with Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura—ultimately were out-talented Wednesday night in San Antonio. Final score, 107-71.
It was a sloppy game, for sure, but the Lakers did what they could to stay in it. What they needed, though, was a night where the whole team shoots well from downtown, offense came from surprising sources, or maybe both. Those things didn't happen, so the Lakers were essentially left with a very, very good Luka Dončić, who was involved in basically every bucket the Lakers managed to score. He finished with 38/10/10. Jake LaRavia finished with 16 points, but the rest of the starting lineup (Deandre Ayton, Jarred Vanderbilt, Marcus Smart) combined for TK points. The bench wasn't of much help, either, with only Jaxson Hayes cracking double digits (10 points).
San Antonio, on the other hand, also had a rough night shooting as a team, but even without Devin Vassell available, just had significantly more firepower on hand to get the job done.
It shows why it was so important for the Lakers to win on Tuesday in New Orleans. Even if LeBron played, the end result (if not the path to get there) could have looked much different.
So now the Lakers come home to kick off a stretch of winnable games, specifically five games in a row against teams currently under .500.
HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky
SEGMENT 1: Lakers are shorthanded, and the game goes as expected.
SEGMENT 2: Lakers don't have much offense in the supporting cast.
SEGMENT 3: Five critical games coming.
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