Game Preview: San Antonio Spurs at Los Angeles Lakers
The Rodeo Road Trip rolls on into Los Angeles
Though they’ve struggled at various times this season, the Los Angeles Lakers are actually in a better place record-wise at this point in the season than they were last year. That version of the Lakers were 28-32 coming out of the All Star break before ultimately finishing 43-39 and making an improbable run to the Western Conference Finals as the 7th seed. As there seemingly always is in Lakerland, they’ve dealt with plenty of in-season drama, getting so bad at one point that rumors began to swirl about them looking to move Lebron James at this year’s trade deadline. Instead, they stood pat, hoping to build on a 6-1 start to February and see what the rest of the season has in store for this group.
The San Antonio Spurs know exactly where they’re going for the rest of this season. While the team will once again fail to qualify for even the play-in, the next few weeks could do a ton for morale going forward. Victor Wembanyama has been as good as advertised, but further seasoning should go a long way in translating his raw talent into playing winning basketball. While James took last night off for the Laker’s game against the Warriors with a sore ankle, he is expected to play tonight. He already has a win over the old King, but what better way to get the juices really going than Wemby picking up his first career W over Anthony Davis?
San Antonio Spurs (11-45) at Los Angeles Lakers (30-27)
February 23rd 2024 | 9:30 PM CT
Watch: BSSW | Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)
What to watch for
- Wemby vs Anthony Davis is the match-up that everyone wants to see when these two teams show up on the schedule. They had an exciting head to head the only time they faced one another this season way back in December, with Davis and the Lakers coming out on top in that one.
- Media darling Austin Reaves struggled early on in the year but has come on and provided consistency for the Lakers. He’s been in and out of head coach Darvin Ham’s starting line-up a few times this year, but has been a starter all throughout the month of February and is averaging 16 points and 6 assists a night on 49% shooting from the field.
- Keldon Johnson has struggled the last few weeks, cracking the 20 point mark a measly 3 times since the calendar turned. He went 1-11 against the Mavericks in his final game before the All Star break. Hopefully the break has reenergized him, the Spurs need all the consistent scoring they can get.
- The opposite could be said of D’Angelo Russell. He was in all kinds of trade discussions ahead of the deadline, but went off all throughout January and has been good so far in February as well, shooting above 40% from 3 the last few weeks.
- In lieu of it being Spurs-Lakers, I’m going to pull one out of the PtR lexicon: Parker must dominate Fisher!!!