Spurs’ balanced attack overcomes Luka Doncic’s individual effort in win over Lakers
Keldon Johnson scored 27 points and San Antonio's balanced attack overcame Luka Doncic's individual excellence as the Spurs defeated the visiting Los Angeles Lakers 107-91 on Wednesday in the second game of a back-to-back for both teams.
The Spurs led by five points at halftime and by a dozen with just under four minutes left in the third quarter. Los Angeles never got closer than seven points the rest of the way with San Antonio all but icing the game when Stephon Castle canned a driving layup with 4:14 left to stoke the margin to 14 points.
Victor Wembanyama came off the bench for the second straight game and racked up 16 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots in 26 minutes of court time for San Antonio. Castle scored 15 points, De'Aaron Fox had 14 and Julian Champagnie added 11 for the Spurs.
Doncic amassed 38 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for the Lakers, who played without LeBron James (out for rest on the second game of a back-to-back). Doncic also had seven turnovers. Jake LaRavia added 16 points and Jaxson Hayes scored 10 for Los Angeles.
A Johnson layup with 21 seconds remaining gave the Spurs a 26-23 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Spurs pushed the lead back to seven points when Carter Bryant poured in a 3-pointer two minutes into the second quarter. Los Angeles swung back, cobbling together an 11-0 run capped by a layup by Ayton to swoop to a 34-30 advantage with 7:11 to play until halftime.
The rest of the period belonged to San Antonio, which matched its biggest lead of the half when Johnson hit a 3-pointer with 51.9 seconds remaining. Doncic's finger roll layup 18 seconds later finished the scoring in the period and culled the Lakers' deficit to 48-43 at the break.
Doncic was almost everything for Los Angeles in the first half, scoring 22 points while taking six rebounds and dishing out seven assists. He outscored the rest of his teammates by a point. Johnson paced the Spurs with 14 points before halftime.
Los Angeles trimmed the Spurs' lead to 56-54 on Jarred Vanderbilt's layup with 8:08 to play in the third quarter before San Antonio regained its stride, going up 71-59 when Johnson hit a 3-pointer with 3:38 remaining in the quarter.