Spurs vs. Lakers: The Morning After

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Just two days after the San Antonio Spurs embarrassed the Miami Heat at the AT&T Center on national television, the Los Angeles Lakers came into San Antonio on a six-game win streak and turned the tables, giving the Spurs their 12th loss of the season 83-99.

The Lakers came out on fire, with several players getting started early while the Spurs struggled.

With 8:35 remaining in the first quarter, Tony Parker hit a jumper that tied the game at 8-8, and that’s about as close as it would get for the Spurs for the remainder of the game.

The Spurs would only score five more points that quarter and didn’t score at all on the final four minutes as the Lakers went on a 12-0 run to end the quarter up 21 points 34-13.

It wouldn’t get much better from there as the Lakers outscored the Spurs in the next two quarters, while the Spurs bench did their best to make the final score respectable in the fourth.

The Spurs were lead in scoring by Gary Neal’s 15. Tony Parker and George Hill added 14 apiece. The loss to the Lakers gave the Spurs just their third home loss of the season.

In Retrospect 

Jeff Garcia talked to our good friend, Rey Moralde of The No Look Pass, before the game and he had the Lakers winning this one from the start.

“Lakers are on a roll and the Spurs are bound to lose at home sometime, right? I’ll pick the Lakers in a close one and everyone will declare for at least one week that the Lakers are back. “

Quoteable

“Yeah, of course nobody expects to be losing by more than 20 in the first quarter, but the way the game presented itself, they were making every shot.  We couldn’t make layups, threes, free throws, anything, and besides they played more angry.  They played with more edge.  We were a little, not soft, but waited to see what was going to happen and they came to get it.  They deserved it.” – Manu Ginobili.

Fantasy Focus

With your league playoffs just around the corner, you might be quick to the trigger in moving Manu Ginobilidown your roster after finishing with six points, shooting 3-for-10 from the field and making none of his three-point attempts on Sunday, but he just had a 20 point, seven assist game on Friday and put up 35 points, eight assists and six rebounds against Memphis so don’t move on him too fast.

In Black and White

What happened to the Spurs’ starters? (San Antonio Express-News)

Lakers pummel San Antonio 99-83 (Los Angeles Times)

The Four Factors