LOS ANGELES — Oklahoma City continues to look dominant, and San Antonio earned the right to be the next team to test them — and maybe with Victor Wembanyama back in the lineup. Here is what happened on Wednesday night in the Western Conference quarterfinals matchups in the NBA Cup.
Spurs 132, Lakers 119
San Antonio came in with a plan.
First, get out in transition. Trust the team’s depth of ball handling guards to run past the Lakers — and the Spurs executed that, with a ridiculous 188.9 net rating in transition (stat via Cleaning the Glass).
“I think our pace was great from the start of the game kind of opened up the court for us,” said Stephon Castle, who led the Spurs with 30 points. “They had a couple loud plays, but I feel like we came together and clamped down when we needed it most.”
The Spurs also wanted to make Luka Dončić a scorer, and avoid fouling and putting him and Austin Reaves on the line, which is what cost the Spurs when they lost to the Lakers earlier in the season. That part of the Spurs plan worked, too. Doncic had 35 points and eight assists, but never got his teammates going until one too-little, too-late push in the fourth. The Spurs also got to the free-throw line 36 times to the Lakers’ 23, and San Antonio finished with a dozen more points from the line.
Finally, San Antonio wanted to trust its depth and 3-point shooting. The Spurs won the bench scoring battle 48-31 and shot 17-of-38 (44.7%) from beyond the arc.
The result was a 132-119 San Antonio win that sends them to Las Vegas and the semifinals against the Thunder on Saturday.
After the game, multiple Spurs players spoke about the spark Keldon Johnson provided off the bench. He was red-hot to open the game, shooting 3-of-3 from beyond the arc (5-of-6 overall) with 13 first-quarter points, and behind him and that pace, the Spurs led 39-30 after one.
The Lakers started the second quarter 0-for-6 from the field, while the Spurs were knocking down 3-pointers and San Antonio stretched its lead to 17.
Midway through the second quarter, after coach J.J. Redick picked up a technical, the Lakers started playing harder on defense — not coincidentally, Marcus Smart was in the middle of it — and cut into the Spurs’ lead with an 11-2 run. It’s then that LeBron had the highlight of the night.
Still, the Spurs showed some composure and pushed their lead back up to a dozen, 70-58, at the half.
That trend continued into the third — every time the Lakers made a play that fired up the crowd and started to close the gap, the Spurs answered.
The Lakers made a fourth-quarter push behind a small-ball lineup with LeBron James (or maybe Rui Hachimura) as the center, cutting the lead to eight in the fourth quarter. Once again, the Spurs responded.
“You don’t want to speak it to existence, but when you play a team like that, it’s not a matter if, it’s a matter of when that run is going to happen,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “You’re not going to blow out a team like that for 48 minutes. And so when they start making some plays… you just got to maintain the course, play the game and what’s being called upon, and execute. I thought we did a phenomenal job of that.”
Johnson also said postgame that Victor Wembanyama had “a very good day” and there is “very much” a chance we will see him in Las Vegas against Oklahoma City. Wemby warmed up pregame, without any kind of sleeve or wrap on his strained calf, and seemed to move well and without pain.
The Spurs could use him, they are going to need everything to beat the Thunder.
Oklahoma City 138, Phoenix 89
Any other questions?
Oklahoma City went up double-digits within the first four minutes of the game. That lead reached 20 less than 10 minutes into the contest. By halftime, it was 74-48 Thunder, and in the third quarter they put up 36 points and had a 17-6 run in the middle of the frame.
Oklahoma City came into the most meaningful game of the young season — with a trip to Vegas and a larger player bonus on the line — and just thrashed the upstart Phoenix Suns, ultimately winning by 49, 138-89.
With the win, Oklahoma City improves to 24-1 on the season, tying the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors — the team that set the NBA record with 73 wins in a season — for the fastest start in league history.
As has been the pattern all season, the Thunder offense gets the headlines — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 28, Chet Holmgren 24 — but it was really their defense, holding the Suns to under 40% shooting (39.3%) that was the real difference on the night. OKC forced 21 Phoenix turnovers and converted those to 34 points (the shorthanded Suns were without Devin Booker and Jalen Green, their two best shot creators).
That win gave the Thunder a franchise-record 16th straight victory, and they head to Las Vegas to face the Spurs on Saturday in the NBA Cup semifinals.
Phoenix showed some fight — literally. Grayson Allen got ejected for leveling Chet Holmgren on a screen.
At that point, the Suns were down 36, and Allen’s move did not spark some kind of Phoenix run. Dillon Brooks led the Suns with 16 points, but on 4-of-16 shooting. It was that kind of night for Phoenix, but Oklahoma City is doing this to a lot of teams.
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