Lakers Down Spurs, LeBron James Gets 83rd Career Triple Double

The Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs both hold 4-1 records, tied for the best mark in the Western Conference with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

This was the first of three meetings between the Lakers and Spurs this season, with two of the three matchups coming in San Antonio’s AT&T Center. The Spurs came into the game 3-0 at home, while it was just the Lakers third road game, as they split the first two.

Snoop Dogg in the house to support the #Lakers on the road in San Antonio.

Despite supporting LA, the #Spurs gifted Snoop a custom jersey pic.twitter.com/mhOUj9w5vO

— Sak Sports Blog (@SakSports) November 4, 2019

The Lakers offense was super efficient in the first quarter, outshooting the Spurs 52% to 38%: but they only led by a mere point. As good as the Lakers were when they were shooting the ball, they were doing a bad job holding on to it, allowing San Antonio to score 11 points off 8 turnovers. The Lakers forced four turnovers and only mustered two points off them.

Anthony Davis had the ball in his hands early and often, finishing the first quarter with 9 points on 4-7 FG. James handled the ball and acted as a primary facilitator, tallying 5 assists in the opening quarter. Shooting the ball, he was just 1-5 from the field with 3 points.

Kyle Kuzma sent the Lakers to the locker room at halftime with a 13-point lead: his three-pointer to end the half (his first of the season) capped off a 10-0 Lakers run. Los Angeles cleaned up their act in the second quarter: continuing to shoot the ball well while only committing two turnovers in the period. They held the Spurs to just 33% from the field in the first half.

The Spurs best player of the first half was Rudy Gay off the bench, with team-highs in points (8), rebounds (4, tied,) and assists, (3, also tied.)

Gay stayed hot, adding in another 7 points in the third quarter including a half-court buzzer-beating heave to cut the Lakers lead to just five.

The Spurs made the game tight in the fourth quarter, but a 9-2 run by the Lakers sealed the game with under two minutes to play. Los Angeles won by a final score of 103-96 after outscoring the Spurs by just 2 points in the final quarter.

After posting a triple double against the Dallas Mavericks, LeBron James followed up with another, the 83rd of his career. 21 points, 13 assists, 11 rebounds, and 2 steals for the King, who is playing as well as ever.

Davis led the Lakers in scoring with 25 points on 10-20 FG. After a 27 free throw attempt performance against the Memphis Grizzlies, Davis had just 2 attempts against the Mavericks and 4 tonight against the Spurs (hitting all 4.) Opponents are hesitating to send Davis to the line, but he’s eating them up either way.

LeBron James notches his 83rd career triple double, and his second in as many games. Could we see this even more often from point-guard-esque LeBron?

— Sak Sports Blog (@SakSports) November 4, 2019

The Lakers roll to 5-1 to retain the best record in the Western Conference. In a season where every game could count, a head-to-head win over the Spurs also bodes well for Los Angeles.

Next, the Lakers travel to Chicago to face the Bulls on Tuesday night. After their first home loss, the Spurs schedule sees them traveling to Atlanta to take on Trae Young and the Hawks.