The Silver and Black rode their speed advantage and balanced team play to get past a Los Angeles team that had a great night from their superstars as Luka Doncic scored 35, and LeBron had 19, but they did not get much in the way of contributions from anyone else, except for Marcus Smart who played ferocious defense and hit a ton of three-point shots.
Stephon Castle had one of the best games of his NBA career, scoring 30 points, with 10 rebounds and 4 assists, as he dominated the paint against the slower
and weaker opponents. Keldon Johnson had a nice night off the bench, and was a major factor in building a lead for the Silver and Black with a second quarter scoring frenzy. De’Aaron Fox used his quickness and ability to create shots to keep the Spurs in control. Surprisingly, the Spurs won the foul game tonight, using their quickness to force the Lakers to repeatedly foul players on their way to the hoop. Castle had 9 attempts from the charity stripe, and frankly, it probably should have been more as he sought contact at the rim. It was a great team effort as the Spurs all pulled together to help Keldon buy a llama and David Jones Garcia buy a car.
Observations
- The NBA Cup court in Los Angeles was damaged somehow before their fourth cup game, and tonight’s game was played on the regular Lakers court surface, which made it a lot easier to watch on TV. It’s nice when things come together to make your life a little better.
- The butt-kicking the Thunder put on the Suns in the first game was almost incomprehensible. A loss like that should result in relegation to the G-League or something. Their souls were taken in a 138-89 blowout that wasn’t as close as the score.
- Blake Griffin on TV is not nearly as obnoxious as his reputation. Maybe he’s mellowed since his playing days. He sure gets a lot of broadcast and commercial work. I’m guessing that he has a really good agent.
- I honestly think that players should get a tech when they complain about a foul call when it’s completely obvious that they committed a foul. But then Luka would never be able to finish a game.
- The Spurs were able to take advantage of Luka’s penchant for hanging back and complaining about not getting calls to go on a run to close the first quarter on a run and led 39-30 as the second quarter began.
- Keldon Johnson is a monster when he’s on, and he was early on, propelling the Spurs to an early lead. Apparently, he really wants that llama.
- I really like it when opposing coaches waste their challenges early in the game. Hachimura pushed Vassell in the back on a drive in the second quarter and then Ayton conned JJ Redick into challenging the call. Maybe Redick will learn eventually to not trust his players on those calls, but too late for this game.
- Marcus Smart plays very physical defense (fouls a lot) but hardly ever gets called for a foul. Some guys just get a pass from the refs. I’m not sure why. Inexplicably, he turned into Steph Curry tonight, hitting 8-14 three point shots, which helped to keep the Lakers within range in the second half.
- The Spurs pulled out to an 18 point lead halfway through the second quarter, but the Lakers surged back into relevance with Doncic playing the foul game and the Lakers playing a zone that stymied the Spurs quickness advantage. The lead was down to single digits with a LeBron dunk with just under a minute left in the half, but the Spurs scored the last four points with Fox and Barnes taking advantage to lead 70-58 as the halftime buzzer sounded. It was a pretty good half, but with the Spurs, you always worry about how the team will look when they come out of the locker room after halftime, when they’ve played some of their worst basketball.
- The Spurs started the third on an 10-2 run to take their first 20 point lead, so maybe my fears were unfounded. Castle did most of the early damage for the Silver and Black, but Doncic was able to draw his fourth foul and he had to leave the game early in the third.
- Ayton has bounced around the league for a long time, but he might have finally found himself as a Laker. He’s become a useful player in Los Angeles, and a few years ago, he looked like he wasn’t even going to be in the league.
- Van Gundy seems to be focused on narratives instead of watching the game. On a play where Keldon was obviously hit in the face by LeBron, he went off on a story about acting. That was dumb.
- Spurs weathered the Luka storm in the third, leading 104-87 going into the fourth, actually outscoring their opponent in the third quarter for a change.
- The Spurs held the Lakers at arms length for most of the fourth quarter, but with Marcus Smart hitting his three point shots and Luka doing Luka stuff, they had one last surge in them with about five minutes left. Finally cutting the lead to single digits with an 11-0 run. Castle returned to the game and settled things for the Spurs, hitting a clutch three point shot to seal the deal with a little more than a minute left to give the Spurs an insurmountable 130-116 lead. Both teams emptied their benches in the last minute and the Spurs won 132-119.
Well, now the Spurs are advancing to the semis and running into a buzzsaw against the Thunder, who blew out the Booker-less Suns in the game before this one. The Thunder will end up playing the Spurs 5 times this year, which is a record for the most head to head matchups in a regular season between two teams. The NBA Cup does end up having some side effects, and having two additional games against above average teams in the regular season is probably the toughest one, because it could end up affecting playoff seeding and home court for the playoffs. That’s the way the NBA Cup ball bounces, and we are going to see on Saturday night how the Spurs measure up against the best team in the league in Las Vegas. See you there!
