Lake Show Life
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Lakers Steamrolled by Spurs in San Antonio

By Sean Burch

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Behind a masterful showing from Kawhi Leonard and a vintage performance from Pau Gasol, the Spurs made quick work of the Lakers on Thursday night, boat racing LA 134-94 in San Antonio.

Think Pau Gasol enjoys playing against the team that nearly-traded him for Chris Paul? The future Hall-of-Famer roasted LA again, this time to the tune of 20 points, and nine rebounds on a perfect 9-9 from the field — which makes sense, since he’s averaged 20 points and nine boards in his six games against the Lakers since 2014.

Gasol and Leonard started the beatdown early, as the Spurs took a 12 point lead after the first quarter, and extended the advantage to 18 by the break. Leonard was in cruise control against the Lakers’ lackluster defense, scoring 23 points on 7-9 shooting in the first half (he finished with 31).

Of course, it helped that D’Angelo Russell made his worst decision since the Snapchat Incident, fouling Leonard as he attempted a half-court runner as the first half expired. You know, the dude with the biggest mits and premiere hand-eye coordination. To channel the great Vic “The Brick” Jacobs, there was only one word: Oy!

The Laker made their best push midway through the second quarter behind the energy of Tarik Black and Julius Randle, chopping the deficit down to only four points before the Spurs regained control. Randle had the full arsenal on display in the first half, scoring on whirling drives to the rim, hammer dunks, and even midrange jumpers. He was easily the top performer for the Purple & Gold tonight, scoring 22 points and dishing out five assists.

On the other hand, it was fun to see the dichotomy between the styles of Pau and Julius, the bridge between new and old Lakers bigs. Gasol outclassed the Lakers’ bigs down low, peppering them with nifty moves in the post while also making savvy dives to the rim when his guards attacked the paint. He’s the old guy in men’s league who shreds your team and you don’t even know how he’s doing it, but this isn’t a rec game; he’s still capable of doing it against the top talent in the world.

Things only unravelled more for LA coming out of the break. After giving up 72 points in the first half, Luke Walton yanked the starters less than three minutes into the half after coming out sluggish on defense.

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And for the second straight game, coach Walton looked to have some choice words for some of team’s young building blocks, with the cameras catching him sternly addressing Russell and Randle in the fourth quarter. Walton definitely needs a Stella or ten after this one.

Ivica Zubac though! Besides Randle, the next best thing for Lakers fans still watching the blood bath was the performance of the 19-year-old Croatian. Zubac put up eight points (4-7 FG), grabbed four boards, and had three combined blocks and steals in his 15 minutes of action. And hey, I know it was garbage time, but it was actually pretty impressive — Big Zu was energetic on defense, worked the offensive glass, and even showed a little range. Mozgov, on the other hand…let’s not get into it.

Game Notes

  • Luol Deng Cooked Meter: “Medium Well.” I know he’s been looking better of late, but that wasn’t the case against the Spurs: Three points on 1-5 from the field and zero chance of slowing down Kawhi.
  • Okay fine, let’s talk about Moz for a second. He looked genuinely tipsy out there tonight — missing all four of his shots, including a clanked jump hook from five feet and nearly air-balling a shot from the foul line. что? (That’s the Russian translation for “what?”)
  •  On a happier note, I think this was a good tweet by us today:

Next: What should LA do at the deadline?

Alright, that wasn’t pretty. The Lakers will head back to LA to play the Clippers in a “road” game on Saturday afternoon.

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