Great game. Spurs vs Lakers. Wemby vs Luka.
* LAL get the win. No LeBron. No A Reaves. Luka led the way.
* Spurs played some tough physical D on Luka. They had Stephon Castle on him initially. Then Sochan. They were beating up on him for 94 feet.
* Olynyk and Sochan back for San An after injuries. I wonder if San Antonio is better without them in the rotation. Anyway, no Kornet so they were needed in this one.
* Lakers starting lineup was M Smart, Luka, LaRavia, Hachimura, Ayton. Not much offensive creation there outside of Luka. A lot of physicality around him. Good defenders.
* Lakers ran a 2nd unit of Bronny, Nick Smith Jr, M Smart, Hachimura and Jaxson Hayes. Nick Smith Jr was the main offensive option. Spurs did a great job of attacking Nick Smith Jr on the other end forcing him to pickup Wemby on the switch which Nick Smith Jr couldn't handle. Nick Smith Jr did a good job scoring. Active on defense. Did well on defense outside of the Wemby switches. A couple of terrible turnovers 40 feet from the hoop with bad passes that were easily picked off by San Antonio. Bronny did better on the switches to Wemby.
* Nick Smith Jr has a great chance of moving ahead of Dalton Knecht as the Lakers offensive sub / bench scorer. Knecht hasn't gotten the job done. Nick Smith Jr does things offensively that none of their other bench guys do.
* Ahh, no Dylan Harper. That is why San An's offense looks so much weaker tonight. Less creation off the dribble. Both shot creation and playmaking. Stephon Castle appears to be their only off the dribble threat. Vassell is quiet. Castle finished with 16pts 8ast but on 3-11 FGA 9-11 FTA with 6 turnovers. Not a good night at the office for Castle.
* Olynyk offers no rim protection. He worked better with Sochan next to him. SAS tried a lineup with H Barnes at PF. Too small. Lakers getting easy attempts at rim. Spurs looked much stronger with Kornet than Olynyk.
* I love it when Hachimura looks for his shot. He should do that more often. He is a good scorer / shooter.
* Ayton outscored and outrebounded Wemby. 22pts and 10reb for Ayton. 19pts and 8reb for Wemby. Wemby had a tough offensive night. The Spurs did not have enough guard penetration. They did not get the Lakers out of position / scrambling / helping on D. Made it easier to stay in position on Wemby.
* Luka has no LeBron no A Reaves. Wemby has no D Harper no D Fox.
* Lakers look like title contenders. More solid defensively. It is easier to play D though with only one of A Reaves / Luka rather than both.
* Crazy pass by Luka jumping out of bounds away from a double team faking the cross court pass then reverses it over the shoulder to a wide open Hachimura for a 3. That play alone is worth checking out on the highlights.
* Both teams should take confidence out of this game. Good win, good performance by LAL. Not so good but San Antonio but their issues look like they will fix themselves with the return of Kornet & D Harper.
* Smart with a heat check pull up 3 in transition early Q3. Clank. Bad miss. Played very well on the night. 3rd leading scorer for LAL with 17pts 5ast 5reb 1stl 1blk. 3-10 FG 10-10 FT.
* Spurs make an 8-0 run. Luka responds with a step back 3, steal, transition lob to Ayton. Timeout Spurs.
* Jaxson Hayes doing a good job for LAL. His rim running in the 2nd unit gives them a different type of threat that they did not have earlier in the season without him.
* Luka 35pts 13ast 9reb 5stl 2blk 1 charge drawn. He did not shoot well 9-27 FGA but 13-17 FTA. Great all round game. Outplayed Wemby by a large margin in the battle between two MVP candidates.
* Jake LaRavia had some nice drives. More nible in his ball-handling than you expect. Quicker than was earlier in his career. Nice spin moves. Good passing off the dribble.
* Balanced effort for SAS. Wemby 19pts. Castle 16pts Sochan 16pts Vassell 15pts H Barnes 14pts Champagnie 14pts Keldon 12pts. 7 guys with between 12-19pts.
* How did SAS get Lindy Waters III? Great pickup. He is too good to be rotting away on the end of the Spurs bench. He should be a rotation regular somewhere.
* Smart doing a great job defensively on Wemby.
* 85th career 30+pts 10+ast game from Luka. Tied 5th most in NBA History. The guy is 26 years old. Already tied 5th highest in NBA history for this. Wow.
