In the final Staples Center home game, the Los Angeles Lakers suffered another blowout loss, this time to the San Antonio Spurs by a score of 138-110.
LeBron James made sure the Lakers got off to a good start after scoring seven quick points, though the Spurs were the ones to take a 10-9 lead. Russell Westbrook was able to bounce back from a rough stretch, while James found Dwight Howard for an easy score to give L.A. their first lead of the night.
James continued to get his way driving to the rim, but a 3-pointer from Dejounte Murray swung the advantage back to the Spurs. Outside of an Isaiah Thomas jumper, the Lakers failed to find much scoring elsewhere and they went into the second trailing 33-24.
San Antonio’s outside shooting started to become a problem as they extended their lead to 11 after hitting a couple to open the quarter. With the rest of the team in a slump, James took it upon himself to carry the offense and despite scoring his 20th point the Lakers remained down 10.
Talen Horton-Tucker was able to knife into the paint and score at the rim, but Los Angeles could not get many stops to narrow the deficit. Carmelo Anthony went on his own mini-run in the closing minutes, but the Lakers still found themselves behind 66-55 at halftime.
Much like the first half, the Lakers struggled to get much going outside though Wayne Ellington was finally able to find the mark from deep. Even when Los Angeles was able to score, San Antonio was able to answer on the other end which left the former still in a hole.
The Lakers found little room to operate offensively, though James and Westbrook were able to finally generate some positive momentum with tough finishes. Westbrook found himself in a nice groove in the final minute of the third, but their struggles guarding Keita Bates-Diop left staring up at a 105-92 hole.
San Antonio was able to create more distance as they had little trouble carving up the Los Angeles defense, while on the other end the Lakers had no source of points outside of James. The Spurs moved the ball well to keep generating open looks and the Lakers simply had no answer for it.
Midway through the period, San Antonio built up a 22-point lead and with L.A. failing to build any sort of comeback or momentum they would fall well short.
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