When the Lakers opened their homestand with back-to-back wins over the 76ers and Warriors, giving them a three-game winning streak for the first time in a month, it looked like they were ready to enter the All-Star break with momentum on their side.
Forty-eight hours can change a lot.
Because once it became clear that they would be without most of their key players against the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night, with Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves among the players sitting on the team’s bench in street clothes, it was all but certain that the Lakers would drop back-to-back games after losing to the first-place Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night.
And Spurs star Victor Wembanyama ensured that would be the case, recording a career-high 40 points (13 of 20 shooting) with 12 rebounds en route to handing the Lakers a 136-108 defeat at Crypto.com Arena.
Dendre Ayton and Marcus Smart were also sidelined for the Lakers.
With the Lakers coming up short, Luke Kennard and Drew Timme led the undermanned team with 14 points each.
But the Spurs split their defense with ease, shooting 56.5% from the field.
What it means
The Lakers fell to 32-21 on the season, but retained their No. 5 spot in the Western Conference standings as they own the tiebreaker against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
They want to avoid their third three-game losing streak since mid-December.
Turning point
Tuesday at 1:06 PM.
That’s when the Lakers announced they would be without Doncic, James, Reaves and Smart.
And an hour before tipoff, Ayton was ruled out as sidelined from what could potentially be their starting lineup if he were fully healthy.
MVP: Victor Wembanyama
If there was any doubt about what the outcome of Tuesday’s game would be after it became clear who the Lakers would be without, Wembanyama quickly erased it.
The six-foot-four French phenom scored 23 of the Spurs’ first 28 points, and exactly half of the first 46 points of the Lakers-Spurs game.
He had 25 points in the first quarter through the first eight minutes of the game before being fouled out.
Wembanyama’s first-quarter scoring total ranked 10th in the play-by-play era (1996–97 season), with his eight minutes in the opening frame being the fewest among the 16 players who had scored at least 25 points in a first quarter.
Game stat: 26
That’s the number of minutes it took Wembanyama to equal his highest score of the season.
He became the third player in league history to score at least 40 points in less than 27 minutes, joining Patrick Ewing (1988) and “Sleepy” Floyd (1991).
It was the second-fewest minutes in a game with 40 points and 10 rebounds behind Ewing.
Next
The Lakers will continue their homestand and play their final game before the All-Star break when they host the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday.
The Mavericks have lost eight straight games, with their losing streak beginning when they fell to the Lakers on Jan. 24 in Dallas.
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