{"id":467620,"date":"2026-02-11T08:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T08:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/467620\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T08:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T08:09:07","slug":"victor-wembanyama-scores-37-of-40-in-first-half-as-san-antonio-spurs-crush-short-handed-los-angeles-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/467620\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama scores 37 of 40 in first half as San Antonio Spurs crush short-handed Los Angeles Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Victor Wembanyama<\/a> scored 37 of his season high-tying 40 points in the first half of the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>\u2019 fifth straight victory, 136-108 over the short-handed Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama had the highest-scoring first half in the NBA this season and the highest-scoring half by a Spurs player in the 21st century while going 12 of 17 from the field with three 3-pointers against a Lakers lineup missing Luka Doncic<\/a>, LeBron James<\/a> and Austin Reaves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama played only the first eight minutes of the second half with the Spurs far ahead in their 10th win in 13 games.<\/p>\n

The French big man became the third player in the past 50 seasons to score at least 40 points while playing 27 minutes or fewer. He also had 12 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Deandre Ayton<\/a> and Marcus Smart<\/a> also sat out for the Lakers on the second night of a brutal back-to-back set against the Western Conference\u2019s top two teams. Doncic and Smart are injured, while James, Reaves and Ayton are all managing health concerns.<\/p>\n

After winning the opening tip, Wembanyama scored 17 points in the first 4:15 on 5-for-5 shooting. He had 25 points before checking out with four minutes left in the Spurs\u2019 47-point first quarter, and he added 12 more in the second.<\/p>\n

Carter Bryant<\/a> scored a career-high 16 points and Dylan Harper<\/a> had 15 for the Spurs.<\/p>\n

Luke Kennard<\/a> and Drew Timme<\/a> scored 14 points apiece for the Lakers. Bronny James<\/a> had 12 points and six assists.<\/p>\n

Spurs guard Stephon Castle<\/a> had seven assists before leaving with a bruised pelvis after blocking Rui Hachimura<\/a>\u2019s shot and falling hard with 4:10 left in the first half.<\/p>\n

James missed his 18th game of his 23rd NBA season, disqualifying him from making his 22nd straight appearance on the All-NBA teams.<\/p>\n

NBA scoring leader Doncic missed his third straight game with a hamstring strain.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Spurs: At Golden State on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Lakers: Host Dallas on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/nba<\/p>\n

Greg Beacham, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Victor Wembanyama scored 37 of his season high-tying 40 points in the first half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-467620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}