The San Antonio Spurs fought valiantly to recover from the hump all evening and almost did, however in the long run dropped a winnable recreation to the Lakers to kick off their 2024 NBA Cup debut. San Antonio obtained massive video games from Victor Wembanyama and rookie Stephon Fort, however had been finally achieved in by an enormous evening from Anthony Davis and the Lakers’ supporting solid on an evening the place Lebron James was held method beneath his season scoring common.
The Spurs end their 5 recreation residence stand 3-2 and are 6-7 general. Their subsequent Cup recreation will likely be Tuesday evening at residence in opposition to the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, however they’re again in motion tomorrow evening for a SEGABABA on the highway in opposition to a Dallas Mavericks crew that has misplaced 4 in a row.
Observations
Going again to final season, the Spurs have but to win a single NBA Cup recreation
Victor Wembanyama had an ideal first half, however struggled to ascertain place by a lot of the 2nd half, because the Lakers made it some extent to push and entrance him within the 2nd half. San Antonio ran a variety of their offense by him on the nail in that first half, the outdated Dirk Nowitzki spot that he dominated from all through his profession, however appeared to go away from it as the sport wore on. After a career-night past the arc in his 50 level recreation in opposition to the Wizards, he went simply 4/13 on this one.
The quantity of stress Anthony Davis places on the rim each possession is what Wemby ought to hopefully be able to at some point. Davis, who had 26 factors within the first half and 40 for the sport, did hit an enormous 3 within the closing minutes of the sport, however the majority of the evening was spent discovering his method each into the paint and to the free throw line, the place he was 10/12 from the charity stripe. Wembanyama, by comparability, didn’t try a single free throw.
The transition protection was fairly horrible within the first half, with Lakers leaking out after each San Antonio miss seemingly unopposed. It was significantly better within the 2nd half and the Spurs had been in a position to slim the quick break level disparity by the point the sport ended.
Lebron James, who turns 40 years outdated in a number of weeks, notched a 4th straight triple double for the primary time in his profession. San Antonio really did an ideal job on him all through the sport, as James had 7 turnovers to go along with his triple double and had simply 11 factors till the waning moments of the 4th, hitting a clutch layup and two clutch free throws to place the sport away.
Subsequent to Wemby, Stephon Fort has most likely stood out probably the most throughout this residence stand and the story was the identical tonight. The rook, who scored in double digits in every recreation on this home-stand, paced San Antonio within the first half with 15 of his 22 factors and had some clutch buckets down the stretch, even placing the Spurs up at two totally different moments within the final 2 minutes of the sport with free throws and a tricky layup.
Chris Paul recorded his 12,000 help early within the recreation, changing into simply the third participant in NBA historical past to hit that mark after John Stockton and Jason Kidd. Paul has performed in addition to any 40-year outdated participant not named Lebron James can hope to play and he’s already had a useful impression on these younger Spurs. With 11 factors and 11 assists, he additionally notched his fifth double double this season tonight.
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