Earlier than attending Tuesday’s recreation between my Spurs and the hometown Lakers, I investigated how the groups have carried out in opposition to one another through the years. A little bit of analysis revealed that the Spurs have a successful report in opposition to each workforce within the NBA besides one – the Lakers. The all-time common season report going into Tuesday’s recreation was Lakers 133, Spurs 118. (Spoiler alert: the rating is now 133-119.) Damaged down by decade:
So that you don’t must do the analysis, the second finest report in opposition to the Spurs is held by the Phoenix Suns, with the Spurs main that sequence 128-114. The worst? The Brooklyn Nets, which has a 31-81 report in opposition to the Spurs, and presumably have a dropping report in opposition to each workforce within the league. No, I’m not going to do the analysis to substantiate.
It is a great distance of claiming that the Spurs and the Lakers have a protracted historical past in opposition to one another, hard-fought and evenly matched. The spotlight might have been the six-year stretch 1999-2004, because the golf equipment confronted one another within the playoffs in each a kind of seasons, with the winner advancing to the NBA Finals annually and the NBA Championship for the primary 5 years of that stretch. In 2004, the Pistons broke the streak by beating the Lakers within the Finals. All of us do not forget that the Lakers made the Finals in 2004 largely due to the Derek Fisher 0.4 shot over My Man Manu in Recreation 5 of the Western Convention Semi-Finals. What we strive to not keep in mind is the ultimate rating of that recreation: 74-73. Taking a look at that rating raises the query: Did groups solely play three quarters in these days?
The rivalry continued to be nice via about 2013, when it basically went away. In November of 2019, I wrote the next:
However after the 2nd seed Spurs swept the seventh seed Lakers within the first spherical of the playoffs in 2013, the Lakers went off a cliff. Over the subsequent six seasons, the Lakers completed in 14th, 14th, fifteenth, 14th, eleventh and tenth place within the West. I knew the Lakers had put collectively a string of dangerous seasons, however trying again at that string of disastrous years is beautiful. Put merely, the Lakers stunk — whereas the Spurs continued to excel, going 2nd, 1st, sixth, 2nd, 2nd, seventh and seventh. The primary 5 of these years noticed one other Spurs’ championship and powerful contender standing annually till the final two.
The shortage of a gift rivalry grew out of the Lakers’ ineptitude for a prolonged time period. Put merely, the Lakers have been now not a worthy rival, and thus killed the rivalry. And whereas the Lakers are again within the driver’s seat this season, the attract of a Lakers — Spurs recreation has died.
4 months after that article, the pandemic shut down the NBA. Quickly thereafter, the Lakers, led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, received the 2020 Bubble Championship. And within the following years, the Spurs grew to become the dangerous workforce within the pale rivalry. Fortunately, they turned their dangerous fortune into gold, placing lottery gold in three consecutive seasons by getting Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Citadel and Dylan Harper. Time will inform whether or not these three will finally be seen because the three finest back-to-back-to-back draft picks in NBA historical past. After all, the current Spurs squad additionally carries on the group’s custom of getting scrap heap/finish of the draft guys taking part in essential roles: DannyGreen!!, Patty Mills, Boris Diaw (all reduce by different groups) and Manu Ginobili (2nd spherical) from the Stunning Recreation Spurs, and Julian Champagnie (undrafted), Luke Kornet (undrafted) and Keldon Johnson (twenty ninth choose) on this 12 months’s workforce.
Due to my buddies Ken and Kim, I had 4 tickets to Tuesday’s recreation at Staples/Crypto Area. I attended with three fellow hoops fans, although I used to be the one Spurs fan within the foursome. Two of the others are Laker followers, whereas the third is a misplaced Knicks fan, a great distance from residence. The Knicks fan can be a Jets fan, so we tried to steer our dialog far-off from any point out of soccer. That’s what buddies do for one another. And with the Lakers completely retreating and sitting their three finest gamers, our Jets fan most likely felt proper at residence with one workforce significantly better than the opposite.
Who else believes that the Lakers wouldn’t have sat their finest gamers for a Spurs recreation again when this was the very best rivalry within the league? Kobe, Shaq, Gasol, Horry, Fox, Odom, and D Fish wouldn’t have missed a Spurs recreation, simply because the Massive Three and their teammates wouldn’t have missed an opportunity to compete with the Lakers. Instances have modified.
As soon as we heard what number of Lakers have been skipping the sport, Knick Fan Marc texted me, “Nonetheless wish to go?” I don’t know if he was severe or not – however I used to be clearly going to this recreation. The opposite three additionally attended. Wanting up on the sell-out crowd, nobody else bailed, both. And all of us who attended bought to see one thing that we might by no means see once more.
Lee Dresie
Our 4 seats have been basically baseline prolonged on the Spurs finish of the courtroom, reverse the Spurs bench, so we had the right view to see Victor go 8 for 9 from the ground in these first 8 minutes minus one second. (The image under of Victor’s free throw exhibits our view.) If anybody on the recreation is ever requested about unimaginable issues we have now witnessed in particular person, we may have these 8 minutes from Spurs at Lakers on February 10, 2026.
Lee Dresie
Every time I report on these video games in Los Angeles, I preserve an eye fixed out for the variety of Spurs jerseys within the stands. “Again within the day”, when the rivalry was sizzling, there have been at all times a superb share of Spurs followers. Through the darkish years starting in 2020, that share went approach down. With the Spurs using the wave with their nice younger expertise, I hoped Spurs followers would end up in pressure for this recreation. And the LA-area Spurs followers turned out. I sat subsequent to Spurs fan Steve in his Victor jersey. Steve just isn’t from Texas however grew to become a fan when the Nice Duncan joined the workforce, and he stays one at this time. Two rows in entrance of me, and one row behind me, have been guys with #5 Citadel jerseys. In line behind us earlier than the sport was a #10 DeRozan and a #20 Ginobili. And I must get my spouse this blanket/serape/jacket for chilly (LA outlined) winter nights.
Lee Dresie
Additionally a shout out to the Laker followers who stayed till the top – and that was most of them. I suppose spending all that cash to see the Lakers, though the very best of them selected to not play, encourages individuals to attempt to get their cash’s price. They usually bought to see Bronny James truly play pretty nicely within the fourth quarter. The largest cheer of the night time got here when Bronny made a step again three over Kelly Olynyk within the fourth quarter, slicing the Spurs’ result in a zillion.
We additionally bought to witness a Gonzaga vs. Gonzaga match-up within the fourth quarter. Olynyk vs Drew Timme. Not fairly Wilt vs. Russell, nevertheless it was nonetheless enjoyable. Timme outscored Olynyk 14-8, however Olynyk’s workforce received. Hmm, considerably just like the previous Wilt vs. Russell video games, proper?
