Luka Dončić and the Los Angeles Lakers had no issues Monday night.
The Lakers rolled to a near wire-to-wire win over the San Antonio Spurs at Crypto.com Arena. They picked up the 125-109 victory in the contest, which was rescheduled from early January after it was postponed due to the massive wildfires that broke out across Southern California earlier this year.
Dončić led the way in the blowout win despite a pretty bad offensive night for him. He had 21 points, 14 assists and nine rebounds, which left him just shy of a triple-double. Dončić shot just 5-of-20 from the field and 1-of-7 from behind the arc, too. The Lakers are also still without LeBron James, who is recovering from a groin strain. He’s expected to be out for at least another week. Monday’s win was the team’s second since he went down, following Sunday night’s win over the Phoenix Suns.
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Luka Dončić, despite a poor shooting night, led the Lakers to a blowout win over the Spurs to keep pace in the Western Conference standings. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
But despite a bad shooting night for Dončić and no James, the Lakers still cruised to the win. Austin Reaves picked up a lot of the slack with a 30-point night that included a step-back jumper that left James shimmying on the sidelines.
Jordan Goodwin and Dorian Finney-Smith added 15 points each for the Lakers, too.
Stephon Castle led San Antonio with 23 points and eight rebounds in the loss, which dropped the Spurs to 28-39 on the season. Devin Vassell added 17 points and was the only other starter to hit double figures. Jeremy Sochan added 15 points off the bench.
The blowout isn’t all that surprising, given the state of the Spurs. Star Victor Wembanyama is out for the rest of the season after he was diagnosed with a blood clot in his right shoulder. That was announced after returning from the All-Star break, and he hasn’t played since. De’Aaron Fox, who landed with the Spurs right before the trade deadline, was also shut down for the rest of the season due to a finger injury. The Spurs have now lost 11 of their last 16 games and are all-but eliminated from the playoff race.
The Lakers will turn around and take on the Denver Nuggets next on Wednesday night. The Nuggets, who held on to beat the Golden State Warriors on Monday, rested stars Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray for that contest. It’s unclear if either will be back on the floor Wednesday at Crypto.com Arena.
If they are able to play, however, that matchup won’t just be entertaining, but also critically important in the Western Conference race. The Nuggets are in line with the Houston Rockets for the No. 2 seed, while the Lakers — now at 42-25 — are just a game back in the standings with 15 games left in the regular season.
While the Thunder appear to have the top seed locked down, the second seed is still very much in play for Dončić and the Lakers. If they stumble during this last stretch of the season, however, they could fall back as far as the fifth or even sixth-seed — which would alter their chances at a NBA Finals run significantly.
