The Los Angeles Lakers finally got back in the win column on Wednesday night by defeating the San Antonio Spurs in relatively comfortable fashion. They didn’t lose a single quarter and were in control nearly the entire way, fending off Spurs runs regularly and without needing any one player to be a hero.
Anthony Davis needed only 19 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists to secure the win. Dalton Knecht — placed back in the starting lineup — was the leading scorer with 20 points. It was a balanced effort and a near wire-to-wire victory off of the back of a frustrating three-game losing streak.
The Lakers had gotten killed by the Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets prior, and began the streak with a loss to the Orlando Magic in the final seconds. So Davis was certainly happy that the Lakers were able to bounce back and get a road win in San Antonio, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“It was good to get back in the win column. Obviously it’s frustrating and it’s tough when you lose basketball games, but it’s always about how you respond. The good thing about the NBA is you always got one either the next day or the next couple days just to kind of redeem yourself. So I think we had a solid 48 minutes. Obviously they made a run, which every team will because it’s the NBA, but we responded with a run of our own and were able to get some separation and lock down the win.”
The problem for the Lakers in the last two games had been a complete collapse and loss of focus in the third quarter. On Wednesday against the Spurs, they won the third 34-30. Davis discussed what went differently:
“We were just trying to get good looks, run our offense and live with the results. Put guys in actions that we thought that we had an advantage with. We were able to get some lobs, some pocket passes and open 3s. But we just stayed with it. I think we focused more so on the defensive end coming out trying to get stops. They called the first timeout so that was a good sign for us and now it’s just about going out and executing for the rest of the time. For us, we just wanted to come out with a defensive mindset and get stops and then on the other end, execute our offense and score the basketball.”
Starting Knecht instead of Cam Reddish, and in turn leaning into what they do best, could be a reason for the renewed focus in the victory. The Lakers, as currently constructed, are an offense-first team, and perhaps they need to lean harder into that identity than trying to become a defense-first one.
It remains to be seen if that is a sustainable path to wins, but it helped get them out of a three-game funk and back in the win column.
JJ Redick proud of Lakers for responding
The Lakers had a tough past week, but on the second night of a back-to-back, the Lakers were able to get a victory over the Spurs.
Los Angeles earned a 119-101 win over San Antonio and it was a total group effort as everyone who played made some sort of impact in their minutes.
Speaking after the win, head coach JJ Redick expressed how proud he was of his team for responding after three consecutive losses.
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