Welcome in to the full recap of the Lakers' matchup vs. the San Antonio Spurs where the Lakers rack up their 3rd win in a row, beating the Spurs 81-93.
The Lakers are now 3-0 since LaVar Ball opened his mouth about Luke Walton losing the team. All jokes aside, this was another great team victory by the Lakers. Defense-to-offense was in full effect like the last two games against the Hawks and the Kings. That's how they get their fast pace style of play going. The Lakers have recommitted to playing good, team defense, running the floor, attacking the basket, and unselfishly distributing the ball around. That's their identity right now and they've rekindled it during this winning streak. They've had some lapses this game just like in Tuesday's game against Sacramento. San Antonio came storming back by generating turnovers of their own. Most of it was because the Lakers started to get too cute with the passing, but they remained surprisingly calm and stringed together another strong finish to the game.
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Brandon Ingram, 26 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists. Laker fans, B.I. is evolving before our very eyes. There will be continued lapses with Ingram's game, but this game shows that he can flat out score when all phases of his offensive game is on display. The aggressiveness was there. The mid range jumper. The 3-point shot. It's safe to say that Ingram likes playing the Spurs. He poured in 30 points last year against them and that was when Kawhi Leonard was healthy. Tonight, he had 26 against them, despite the Spurs being shorthanded.
Lonzo Ball, 18 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals. The turnovers in the 3rd quarter took off some points for Ball having a great game, but I'm gonna let it slide. The biggest thing was that Ball hit shots from deep and disrupted the flow of the Spurs' ball movement. The fact that Zo' connected on 4-7 shots from 3-point land is an encouraging sign in terms of scoring. From my view, those shots looked like confident shots. That's going to be Lonzo's key to get his shot to fall and become more effective as a scorer while he's doing a solid job stuffing the stats sheets elsewhere.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, 10 points, 5 steals. KCP stepped up his play in the 3rd quarter when the Spurs went on a run to start the 2nd half. He gave the Lakers some needed defense-to-offense possessions that jump started his scoring. And in the fourth quarter, KCP just started picking pockets being the epicenter of additional turnovers forced against the Spurs' offense.
Larry Nance Jr., 14 point, 10 rebounds. And Nance was the epicenter of 2nd chance opportunities, leading the Lakers with 5 offensive boards. There's no further description needed for Nance's heart, hustle, and athletic ability. Get this guy in the dunk contest ASAP. He might've solidified his case when he made an acrobatic grab to throw down the alley oop dunk set up by KCP in transition.
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2nd Half turnovers. Lonzo was guilty of five of those turnovers. It was the result of being too fancy with the unselfish play. The Spurs took advantage of that and made this game competitive before the Lakers recovered and pulled away.
Foul trouble. Brook Lopez had 4 fouls. Nance had 4 fouls. Randle had 3 fouls. Obviously, they had their hands full trying to contain Aldridge and Gasol inside tonight.
MVP
Got our first upset here in terms of game MVP. I could've easily have given this to Ingram because of his 26 point performance. But, I thought Lonzo had the better all-around game and affected the game more. The turnovers in the 2nd half hurt definitely, but the 3-ball was working for him, he continually pushed the ball, and was one of the catalyst in forcing San Antonio into a lot of turnovers.
Conclusion
This young Lakers squad is slowly climbing themselves out of the gutter and got back to the identity which made them underrated to start the season. The frustrating part is that they drift away from it easily. But, I think as long as Lonzo is on the floor and hopefully 100% the rest of the way, the Lakers will stick to the identity of playing good team, defense, running the floor, attacking the basket, and infectiously moving the ball with high energy. Right now at a 3-game winning streak, they are reconstructing their confidence, which is the big thing this team needed after going through a 9-game funk. They must continue to stick to their identity if they want to keep this train rolling. Now, it's time to take that show on the road as they go on a 3-game road trip from against the Mavs, Grizzlies, and Thunder. Stay tuned for a quick fact check on the Mavs game on Saturday and I'll see you guys on MLK Day on Monday when the Lakers take on the Grizzlies.
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