Wemby Scores 40; Spurs Blast Short Handed Lakers

Written by Malcolm Xavier of The Lakers Room

Luka Doncic is still out with hamstring issues. On the second night of a back to back joining him on the injury list is the other two thirds of the Lakers 'Big 3' LeBron and Austin Reaves. Ayton and Marcus Smart are also out with the Lakers essentially in a punt formation resembling the Patriots offense in the most recent mostly already forgotten Super Bowl.

San Antonio the second seed in the Western Conference enter this game as heavy -13.5 betting favorites. They come in looking to extend their winning streak to five over the short-handed Lakers. One surprise name missing off the injury report tonight is LA's athletic promising rookie Adou Thiero who has been out for an extended period but is available tonight.

Victor Wembanyama raced out to 25 first quarter points, the Hollywood crowd stirred at the spectacle it was a sight to see. He couldve went for 30 but he was subbed out at the 4 minute mark. San Antonio controlled the first quarter and jumped out to a 17-4 lead three and a half minutes into the game. Wemby scored 12 of those. A Kennard free throw on a techincal foul and a Kobe Bufkin three cut the lead to nine before another Wemby three, his third of the quarter. Jake LaRavia connected on two threes for LA in the first however the Lakers could not keep pace with the Spurs who had seven different players score in the quarter to pace the Lakers for a 47-30 lead after one. LaRavia led the Lakers with 8 points after one.

Bronny James started the second for the Lakers. The Spurs clinic continued with an easy Dylan Harper alley oop courtesy of De'Aaron Fox - twice in a row to push the lead to 51-30. San Antonio continued on a 14-6 ro, from there capped by threes from Harrison Barnes and Carter Bryant to push the route to 65-36 with 7:15 left in the first half. Luke Kennard scored and Kobe Bufkin drew a foul on Stephon Castle to stop the run. Carter Bryant and Wemby pushed the lead back to 30 on consecutive buckets at 70-40. After a Nick Smith Jr bucket Jaxson Hayes bailed out Bronny on a hot potato of an assist and hit his second 3 of the season (shooting 100 percent on the season) to cut it to 70-45 with 4:33 to go. The Lead got back up to 30 at 82-52 after a Wemby assist on a ferocious Carter Bryant dunk followed by a Wemby finish from Dylan Harper that gave him 35 first half points. Bronny hit a 3 with 33.5 seconds to go in the laft ot cut it to 82-55. On the next trip down LaRavia picked up his 5th first half foul on Wemby who scored his 36th and 37th point at the line to close the half up 84-55.

The Spurs took their foot off the gas, or it felt like that in the second half only scoring 13 in the first six minutes of the third to the Lakers 11 for a 97-66 lead before Bronny found Rui for a Showtime dish - to cut the Lead to 29 before Wemby hit a 3 to push it back to 100-68, Wemby was subbed out shortly after he hit the 40 mark - on 20 shots. Jake Laravaia also collected his sixth personal foul for an early exit in the blowout. It only got worse from there as the lead got up to as much as 40 at 113-73 on a Luke Kornet alley oop from Keldon Johnson. LA closed the quarter on an 8-2 run capped by a Drew Timme three pointer - to cut the lead to an ugly 115-81 going into the fourth.

4th quarter was the inevitable but felt like the Bronny James show thanks to the crowd, it also featured a high flying alley oop form Bronny to Adou Thiero a much needed highlight in a beatdown of a game that had to be even harder to watch in person. Other than that the last quarter was simply garbage time. Had this game been close Wemby may have scored 60 plus with the zone he was in. San Antonio won the season series 3-1 and own the tiebreaker over the Lakers. Short handed or not the Lakers did not even remotely resemble an NBA team tonight. The Lakers now start a new losing streak and try to bounce back Thursday at home vs Dallas before the All Star Break officially begins. San Antonio prevails 136-108.