The buzz inside Crypto.com Arena for the Lakers and San Antonio Spurs game was created because generational talents Luka Doncic and Victor Wembanyana were performing. It was a show that even several members of the World Series champion Dodgers were on hand to watch.
But what they saw was a lot of fouls being called that made the game unsightly. Doncic picked up his fifth in the fourth quarter, and Wembanyama eventually fouled out.
In the end, Doncic produced 35 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds in leading the Lakers to their fifth straight win with a 118-116 victory over the Spurs on Wednesday night.
The Lakers won despite a horrible turnover late in the game, giving the Spurs a chance to tie the score.
Kelly Olynyk scored on a rebound-follow with 1.2 seconds left to leave the Spurs down 118-116. Then Marcus Smart was called for a line violation, giving the Spurs the ball back.
Jake LaRavia fouled Julian Champagnie with 0.4 seconds left. But he missed his first free throw, then the second intentionally.
It meant that Wembanyama (19 points, eight rebounds) and his team had lost two straight games.
Wembanyama got his fifth foul with 10 minutes and 31 seconds left in the fourth quarter, putting him on the bench until there was 6:38 left in the game.
Doncic picked up his fifth foul with 7:58, but stayed in the game that had 66 fouls called between the two teams that led to 84 free throws and saw three of the Spurs foul out.
Wenbanyama drove to the basket and was called for an offensive foul for running over Rui Hachimura with 1:39 left, his sixth and final foul. The Spurs challenged the call, but it was not successful.
How to contain Wembanyama on offense and defense was the most talked about subject pregame.
It was talked about more than Austin Reaves missing his second straight game with right groin soreness. He was seen at the Lakers’ shoot-around earlier in the day working out with one of the assistant coaches.
But later in the day, the Lakers listed Reaves as out.
The Lakers start a five-game trip Saturday night in Atlanta, leaving Coach JJ Redick to say “TBD” (to be determined) when asked if Reaves would return against the Hawks.
The plan is for the Lakers to practice Friday in Atlanta and play the next night, which would give Reaves five more days to heal since his injury occurred Sunday against the Miami Heat.
“He’s got some soreness in that right groin,” Redick said.
Redick added this about Reaves:
“Those injuries, or a further injury on that, is hard,” Redick said. “I’ve had ‘em. I’ve had surgery. We’re just trying to be safe with him. And, hopefully that is Friday, but we’re not going to put him at risk.”
The plan the Lakers had in place to slow down Wembanyama was to crowd the 7-4 center and to keep bodies around him.
In the first half, he was mostly not a factor. He picked up three fouls and blocked just one shot. He had just seven points and four rebounds.
Wembanyama did have a highlight dunk over Bronny James that left the arena buzzing.
“Yeah, there’s 29 coaches in the NBA that prepare for the Spurs and the top of this gameplan is Wemby awareness on both sides of the floor,” Redick said. “And defensively, we showed the team a couple clips, when you touch the paint, you may think you have a layup, but he’s gonna just appear magically out of nowhere and block your shot. The space that he’s able to cover, it’s almost like he can be in two places at once.”
As for Doncic, he went to work in the first 24 minutes, scoring 22 points, handing out seven assists and grabbing six rebounds. He also had three fours in the first half, but that didn’t stop him from being aggressive.