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LOS ANGELES — Oklahoma City continues to look dominant, and San Antonio earned the right to be the next team to test them — and maybe with Victor Wembanyama back in the lineup. Here is what happened on Wednesday night in the Western Conference quarterfinals matchups in the NBA Cup.
Spurs 132, Lakers 119
San Antonio came in with a plan.
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First, get out in transition. Trust the team’s depth of ball handling guards to run past the Lakers — and the Spurs executed that, with a ridiculous 188.9 net rating in transition (stat via Cleaning the Glass).
“I think our pace was great from the start of the game kind of opened up the court for us,” said Stephon Castle, who led the Spurs with 30 points. “They had a couple loud plays, but I feel like we came together and clamped down when we needed it most.”
The Spurs also wanted to make Luka Dončić a scorer, and avoid fouling and putting him and Austin Reaves on the line, which is what cost the Spurs when they lost to the Lakers earlier in the season. That part of the Spurs plan worked, too. Doncic had 35 points and eight assists, but never got his teammates going until one too-little, too-late push in the fourth. The Spurs also got to the free-throw line 36 times to the Lakers’ 23, and San Antonio finished with a dozen more points from the line.
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Finally, San Antonio wanted to trust its depth and 3-point shooting. The Spurs won the bench scoring battle 48-31 and shot 17-of-38 (44.7%) from beyond the arc.
The result was a 132-119 San Antonio win that sends them to Las Vegas and the semifinals against the Thunder on Saturday.
After the game, multiple Spurs players spoke about the spark Keldon Johnson provided off the bench. He was red-hot to open the game, shooting 3-of-3 from beyond the arc (5-of-6 overall) with 13 first-quarter points, and behind him and that pace, the Spurs led 39-30 after one.
The Lakers started the second quarter 0-for-6 from the field, while the Spurs were knocking down 3-pointers and San Antonio stretched its lead to 17.
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Midway through the second quarter, after coach J.J. Redick picked up a technical, the Lakers…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/nba-cup-2025-spurs-run-065550237.html
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Publish date : 2025-12-11 06:55:00
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