It wasn’t an easy win, but in the fourth game the Lakers did just enough to emerge victorious over the San Antonio Spurs and win the season series, the first time the Lakers have done so since the 1997-98 season. And with a 113-104 win on the night of Anthony Davis’ return and Rui Hachimura’s debut, the Lakers improved to 23-26 this season.
Davis scored 21 Points in 26 minutes off the bench, the first time he’s come off the bench since 2013. Patrick Beverley had a productive night, scoring 18 points on 50% shooting, and LeBron James was just short of a triple-double, 9 rebounds and 11 assists with 20 points.
A Laker scored the team’s first six points to start the game. That player was Beverly. After last night’s game where it felt like LeBron was the only one getting going offensively, tonight was a lot more balanced offensively.
But while the offense may have been balanced, the defense was lacking. San Antonio went 13-1 midway through the first game and took the lead. Then, at the 4:22 mark, Davis finally returned from injury and Hachimura made his debut for the purple and gold. There was no early fireworks from the pair as neither had a field goal in the first frame and the Lakers were five down after the first 12 minutes.
But as the rust subsided, AD got going in second. He scored five right at the start of the second and scored 10 in the quarter. Meanwhile, Rui finally got his first field goal with a nice three-pointer in the second and the Lakers ended the half with a 7-0 run that saw LeBron, Russ and AD finally coming together well.
LA started the second half well. Pat Bev followed up a fantastic first-half display with an equally good second; he did everything on Wednesday except sell popcorn. He hit threes, snagged rebounds and provided occasional hockey assists, helping the Lakers to a 13-4 run midway through the third.
However, these Lakers can never close anyone early.
San Antonio went on a 12-0 run as the Lakers poorly defended the three in transition and gave up one easy layup after another. Keldon Johnson was the beneficiary of this lack of defensive focus, finishing the night at 25 Points.
“Let’s see what kind of mentality this Laker group has when this fourth quarter starts.” Those were the words of Lakers broadcaster Stu Lantz as the game rolled into its final 12 minutes.
The Lakers’ response was appropriate.
They went on an 11-0 run that included a pair of threes from James and Max Christie and an exclamation point dunk from Thomas Bryant. The remainder of the fourth went smoothly for the purple and gold as they edged San Antonio 32-22 in the fourth.
The central theses
Davis had brilliant flashes with some nice blocks and dunks, Rui (12 points and 6 rebounds on a 4-7 shooting) looked nervous but usable, and the Lakers are slowly but surely moving in the right direction.
The main negative today was that Wenyen Gabriel was the victim of AD’s return. He’s averaging 16 minutes a game and was on track for a DNP (Coach’s Decision) CD until he gets 45 seconds of play in the garbage time tonight. That wasn’t a popular choice on Twitter and possibly unwise given the lack of depth this team has in 4th and 5th place.
Still, it’s better to win with problems than lose because of them, so hopefully Darvin Ham can find out when the Lakers travel east against their rivals, the Boston Celtics, on Saturday.
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