Spurs shock Lakers to book NBA Cup semis berth
LOS ANGELES, United States — Stephon Castle scored 30 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and De'Aaron Fox added 20 to lead San Antonio to a 132-1109 stunner over the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday (Thursday Manila time).
The Spurs beat the Lakers despite the continued absence of French superstar Victor Wembanyama.
Wembanyama missed his 12th game with a calf injury. But San Antonio has won nine of its last 12, and coach Mitch Johnson said before the contest that Wembanyama was "very, very close" to a return.
Seven Spurs players—including three reserves—scored in double figures as San Antonio withstood a 35-point performance from Lakers star Luka Doncic.
"We all just want to win," Fox said. "We don't care who does it. We just want to get it done at the end of the day.
"So we have a very versatile team, very deep team. So it's a lot of guys that can get it done every night."
Marcus Smart returned from injury to score 26 off the bench for the Lakers and LeBron James added 19.
But Los Angeles struggled to find a way to slow down the speedy Spurs, who held the advantage in fastbreak points and second-chance points and scored 16 points off 11 Lakers turnovers.
The Spurs shrugged off a slow start and followed a late first-quarter surge with an 8-0 run to start the second.
Trailing by as many as 24 early in the fourth quarter, the Lakers cut the deficit to eight, but the Spurs had an answer to every push Los Angeles made.
"We had some good moments, but the majority of the game we were playing uphill too much," James said.
The Spurs will head into the semis against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who earlier bagged a 16th straight victory after thrashing Phoenix, 138-89.
- Latest
- Trending
