The San Antonio Spurs snapped their two-game losing streak, getting past the Los Angeles Lakers ahead of their three-game road trip. Both teams were on the second night of a back-to-back, but the Spurs had a bit of extra juice in the tank.
Their 3-point attempts were falling, but they were ruthless when aiming for the gut, and benefited from taking 15 free throws, making 11, in the first quarter. Yet both teams were sloppy, each turning it over five times, and they only held a three-point lead going into the second quarter.
The defense kept the Spurs from falling apart when they went through a drought, and it took them nearly midway through the period to snap out of it. They subsequently went to halftime after four lead changes up five points while making a scant 14.3 percent of 3-point attempts.
De’Aaron Fox uncorked the offense in the third quarter with six points in 86 seconds, and the team followed his lead, obliterating the paint. They also got a slight stimulus from the Lakers’ carelessness, which set them up with an 11-point lead going into the final stretch.
They were in such a groove then that their guests couldn’t close the distance in the brief non-Victor Wembanyama minutes, and six Spurs got in on the action in the fourth quarter, too.