Lakers (6\u20132) vs. Spurs (5\u20131) | Game 10 of 82<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udcc5 Date: Wednesday, Nov. 5<\/p>\n
\u23f0 Tip-off: 7:00 p.m. PST\u00a0<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udccd Location: Crypto.com Arena\u00a0<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udcfa TV: ESPN, Spectrum SportsNet (+)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udcfb Radio: ESPN LA 710 \/ 1330 KWKW<\/p>\n
The Lakers are back home Wednesday in a must-see matchup against Victor Wembanyama and the 5-1 Spurs as Los Angeles looks to push their win streak to five games following a star-less 123-115 win in Portland on Monday.<\/p>\n
Luka Don\u010di\u0107 is expected to make his return after missing the road win in Portland; however, Austin Reaves, who also sat out that game, will be sidelined for the second straight contest due to a groin injury.<\/p>\n
After starting the season 5-0 for the first time in franchise history, San Antonio will look to bounce back into the win column after their first loss of the season on Sunday against the Suns.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama has lived up to his alien nickname in this early NBA season with out-of-this-world hoops from a player of his unique size and skill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He looked MVP-level in San Antonio’s five-game win streak, averaging 30 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks, while putting the Spurs among the top teams in blocks (third) and rebounds (fourth) a game as the main anchor on defense.<\/p>\n
Despite their early success at No. 2 in the West, the Spurs’ offense has taken a hit, particularly in their backcourt, losing rookie Dylan Harper recently for multiple weeks due to a calf injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was playing at a high level off the bench before the injury as the Spurs’ backup ball handler and playmaker, putting up 14 points, four assists, and four rebounds with very few mistakes a game.<\/p>\n
The Spurs are already down starting PG De’Aaron Fox but still have Stephon Castle and Devin Vassell in the starting unit to help them survive shorthanded in the backcourt.<\/p>\n
LeBron James \u2014 Out (right-side sciatica)<\/p>\n
Austin Reaves \u2014 Out (groin)<\/p>\n
Gabe Vincent \u2014 Out (ankle)<\/p>\n
Maxi Kleber \u2014 Out (oblique)<\/p>\n
Adou Thiero \u2014 Out (knee, South Bay assignment)<\/p>\n
Jaxson Hayes \u2014 Probable (right ankle sprain)<\/p>\n
Jeremy Sochan \u2014 Out (wrist)<\/p>\n
Lindy Waters \u2014 Out (eye)<\/p>\n
Kelly Olynyk \u2014 Out (heel)<\/p>\n
Luka Kornet \u2014 Out (ankle)<\/p>\n
De’Aaron Fox \u2014 Out (hamstring)<\/p>\n
Dylan Harper \u2014 Out (calf)<\/p>\n
Stopping a Young Giant in Wemby:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wemby\u2019s 30-point average dropped to 26 points after their loss to Phoenix. It was one of his lowest scoring totals of his young career, finishing with nine points (nine boards) on four-of-14 shooting. Expect a bounce-back performance from him on a large L.A. stage versus Don\u010di\u0107.<\/p>\n
The Lakers will rely even more heavily on Don\u010di\u0107’s playmaking and scoring with Reaves\u2014and still James\u2014out. His injured leg contusion is something to monitor, as his usage will be high, but his MVP-level showings should continue, coming off his first triple-double (29-11-10) of the season.<\/p>\n
Nick Smith Jr. Extended Time as Backup:<\/p>\n
The Lakers have hit a major standstill at their ballhandler position, with Don\u010di\u0107, Reaves and Vincent missing time. So expect Smith Jr. to have an increased role again against the Spurs as the backup PG after his best game as a Laker in their short-handed win in Portland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He finished with 25 points and six assists, while shooting 10-of-15 from the floor and nearly perfect from 3 (five-of-six).<\/p>\n
The Lakers will rock their purple Statement Edition uniforms for the second time, while the Spurs will rock their traditional white Association Edition jerseys.<\/p>\n
The Lakers will be on the road for the next five games beginning Saturday in Atlanta against the Hawks, then CHA, OKC, NOP and MIL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lakers (6\u20132) vs. Spurs (5\u20131) | Game 10 of 82 \ud83d\udcc5 Date: Wednesday, Nov. 5 \u23f0 Tip-off: 7:00…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[23006,23595,23008,6393,4646,3080,223,82,84,83,23596,509],"class_list":["post-37806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-austin-reaves","tag-la-lakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-tst-los-angeles","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}