Los Angeles Lakers fall short in rematch vs San Antonio Spurs

The Los Angeles Lakers sought revenge for their heartbreaking defeat to the Spurs in game 3, however, the Lakers fell short on their way to a 110-106 loss.

Fresh off the heels of beating the Denver Nuggets for their first home win of the season, the Los Angeles Lakers were unable to capture a win on the road against their western conference rival.

Now that we are six games into the season, I feel comfortable in saying that a lot of the concerns I had about the Lakers are starting to be suppressed.

At least for the moment.

We knew the Lakers would find their groove offensively, but they have certainly been getting better on the defensive end, which I believe is showing in the win column.

Except for tonight.

The Lakers started this game with two quick 3-pointers by Kyle Kuzma, who had a solid game, but was relatively quiet in the second half as he finished with only 15 points and four rebounds.

The defense was present early as Josh Hart entered the box score with a steal on one end and the slam on the other end.

Just like in the first game, the Lakers were having a hard time guarding DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge, but overall played solid defense in the first half.

LeBron did his usual LeBron things as he contributed another self alley-oop pass to himself for a bucket.

But the big story in the first half was the return of the now world-famous Lance “Make’EmDance” Stephenson.

Lance got off to a hot start as he went 4-for-5 from the field and hit two 3-pointers including a shot at the buzzer to give himself 10 points in the first quarter.

In the 2nd quarter, the Lakers continued their great play offensively.

Rajon Rondo returned from his suspension during this game and as usual, was a solid contributor off the bench. He knocked down a couple of jump shots and ran the team in his 14 minutes in the first half.

I would have liked to see Kyle Kuzma attack the basket more in the second quarter as I felt that he was settling for 3-pointers as he went 1-for-5 from deep after his two made 3-pointers early.

He did, however, manage to get a hammer dunk off of a great effort on defense by the Lakers.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1056359478256263170

In the 3rd quarter, the Lakers started off sloppy as they let Spurs guard Brynn Forbes score nine points early to cut the Laker lead down to 2.

DeMar DeRozan went back to his bread and butter, as he dominated the low post scoring multiple contested buckets over Josh Hart.

However, after a couple of field goals by Lebron James, including a shot that moved James up to #6 on the NBA All-time scoring list passing Dirk Nowitzki, and a 3-pointer by Josh Hart, the Lakers managed to take control once more.

JaVale McGee only had 9 points but managed to affect the game in other ways by blocking four shots and bothering players down low with his gargantuan size.

In the final 12 minutes, the Lakers again started sloppily. Defensively, they couldn’t find an answer for DeRozan.

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After some excellent ball movement by the Spurs, they managed to take their first lead of the game after being down by as many as 14.

Lance Stephenson came back and made a jumper to tie the game up at 93 with eight minutes remaining in the game.

Down the stretch, Los Angeles started to settle on offense and just really couldn’t bother DeRozan once he got into a groove.

Surprisingly, the Lakers shot better from behind the arc than the Spurs, knocking down 13 shots from deep while the Spurs only managed to hit 3 shots.

In the final minutes, the Lakers were down four until Josh Hart hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to one.

DeMar DeRozan came back and hit a jumper with 15.9 seconds left to extend the lead back to three.

After a questionable play by Rajon Rondo, electing not to take a wide open layup, and a missed three-pointer by Lebron James, Pau Gasol would go to the free throw line to make both attempts to ice the game for the Spurs.

Overall, this team is getting better. It’s clear that the Lakers are still having a hard time guarding guys like DeRozan, but that is something the Lakers can fix down the line.

They played solid defense except for a few hiccups here and there, but you can tell they are starting to come together.

I do, however, think that Kuzma could have been a little more aggressive down the stretch. But, I’m confident in Kuzma that this was just an off night for him.

What I’m interested to see is after this four-game experiment with Kyle Kuzma in the starting lineup, will they elect to insert Brandon Ingram back into the starting lineup next game when he returns from suspension?

Personally, I am a Kyle Kuzma fan and I think that he plays better alongside LeBron. He is naturally more aggressive and can shoot the ball better than Ingram, which I believe are better qualities to have to play with Lebron.

When that time comes I expect Luke Walton to make the right decision that is best for the team.

Then again, it took him 4 games before putting Josh Hart in the starting lineup, so what does he know.