The San Antonio Spurs keep winning high-stakes games without Victor Wembanyama. Each player has doubled their payday to $106,187 if they go no further in Emirates Cup Play, and the two-way contracts get half of that. A neutral court in Las Vegas awaits them for a date with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the semifinals on Saturday as they try to pull off the upset.
Manu Ginóbili posted that he was pleased to have missed his bedtime for one of the team’s top wins of the season. They derailed the Lakers’
transition offense and were sharp in ball security and rebounding, although the stat that might catch everyone’s attention is that they had 20 fastbreak points at intermission when leading by a dozen.
Consider how it took beating two reputable teams, the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers, to secure nice paydays, and the Spurs got it done each time on the road. This is a good time for a reminder that the Spurs (8-5) are one of ten teams with an above .500 road record. Sometimes there is an anomaly, but the serious teams are usually the ones that can find continued success away from home.
These are not playoff games, but it’s as close as it gets in December to that level of environment. The Spurs are nearly acing that test with a 4-1 record in Cup play. Los Angeles had no answers to stop the transition attack or the bevy of long-range missiles hurled their way. Keldon Johnson had worn them out with 13 points in the first quarter, including 3 huge threes, and Harrison Barnes took over the second.
On top of that, things are so much easier for the Spurs when they aren’t soiling themselves in the third quarter. The Lakers have three big-time scorers, but they couldn’t offset the Spurs’ pace advantage and were showing signs of mental fatigue at the start of the second half, as Stephon Castle nailed a quick triple and sliced into the lane for two baskets to show there would be no Spurs collapse in this third quarter after giving up a combined 89 points in the last two games. Even with a 17-point lead going into the fourth, Castle’s scoring punch, and two baskets from De’Aaron Fox, never allowed the Lakers to cut the lead lower than eight, even with Marcus Smart going wild from deep.
The Spurs showed that they were more determined to win this game than the Lakers and always had an answer when they threatened to make things interesting. They are maturing before our very eyes, and it’s been enjoyable to watch after years in no-man’s land.
Takeaways
- Being without Victor Wembanyama has made the Spurs play faster, leaning into their athleticism, ranking 11th in pace over the 12 games he’s missed. They followed up on Wednesday, playing at a pace right below the fastest in the NBA to take advantage of some of the older and less athletic legs of the Lakers. To boot, a high volume of free throws and a steady diet of made threes, which included five Spurs making between two and five treys, made them look like gangbusters.
- Castle’s NBA development is going at rapid speed, and he was the best player on the floor on Wednesday. Coach Mitch Johnson gave him props for harnessing his relentless energy, which resulted in him being the top paint-scorer of the night for the team, their leading rebounder (10), and top assist man (6).
- The Spurs’ 45 percent shooting on threes was the fourth-highest mark of the season. The first quarter was their best sequence, making six.
- The Lakers’ strategy was to attack the low man with the Spurs playing in drop coverage, and poor Luke Kornet got baptized by LeBron James late in the first half. Kornet was still a big contributor, making eight free throws, including two big ones in the last few minutes, and pulling in eight rebounds. It was only his second time logging over 30 minutes this season (33.3). Four of his screens led to baskets, too.
- It’s as if Fox takes it personally that the Lakers didn’t draft him second in 2017, instead choosing Lonzo Ball. The best indicator that he’s in total control is when his 3-point attempts are falling because there’s nothing coverages can do at that point. His last shot to go in was an unguarded triple with fewer than four minutes left and was one of the two biggest shots of the night. Castle made the other.
- The Spurs have a top-eight scoring bench (39.3) this year, and they’ve been fourth-best (43.5) without Wemby. They outscored LA’s by 15, and Johnson was the leading reserve with 17 points and eight rebounds. Dylan Harper added 13 points, and Julian Champagnie had 16. Keep in mind that Smart was the only Lakers reserve to log real minutes, and he had 26 points.
- The Spurs played well, but no one should get too high on a win against the Lakers because they’ve had a relatively weak schedule, even with James missing some time. They could could be closer to purple and mold instead of purple and gold. Time will tell, but the real challenge of this tournament is likely the Thunder, who are the NBA’s defending champs and the runner ups to last year’s Cup. They also matched the best start in NBA history through 25 games (24-1) with the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, doing so in maximum style by wiping out the Phoenix Suns by 49 points before the Spurs game started. We should learn a little bit about how ready the Spurs are for prime time when they see OKC.
- Getting past OKC would mean the pot jumps to $212,373 just for losing in the Cup final. Winning it all bring in $530,933.
