Los Angeles Lakers vs San Antonio Spurs: 3 Talking Points
The Los Angeles Lakers came away with a 121-113 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. LeBron James took over in the fourth quarter with the Lakers trailing the Spurs by 8 points and scored 20 of his 42 points in the fourth quarter alone.
The Lakers have now won four in a row closing their homestand with a good victory. The Spurs who were thrashed by the Jazz last night have now dropped to the 14th rank in the Western Conference playoff standings. The Lakers took a 5 point lead in the first half but struggled mightily in the third quarter where the Spurs fought back to take an 8 point lead.
Brandon Ingram featured only for 5 minutes in the game. He left the game early in the first quarter with an ankle sprain. The Lakers go back on road on Friday night to play the San Antonio Spurs again. Here are some key takeaways from this encounter:
#3 Struggle for the Lakers bench unit:
With Rajon Rondo already out and Brandon Ingram suffering an injury early on in the match, the Lakers bench unit was left short-handed. To aggravate the situation, Josh Hart got into foul trouble and could only play 13 minutes in the match, most of them in the fourth quarter.
The bench unit could not hang on with the Spurs and they let the early lead slip quite easily. None of them were efficient from the floor. Caldwell Pope led the bench unit with 12 points on 3-7 shooting from the field. Mykhailiuk had to play extra minutes because of Hart and Ingram's absence but failed to produce any impact. He shot 1-7 from the field and 1-5 from the 3PT line.
The Lakers had to play massive minutes to James, Ball and Kuzma because of poor production from their bench players.