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Dave McMenaminDec 10, 2025, 05:15 PM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> will host the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> on their standard court in the NBA Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday, rather than their bright yellow alternative Cup court, sources told ESPN.<\/p>\n Players had issues with the slippery surface<\/a> of the specialized Cup court used for the group stage when the Lakers hosted the LA Clippers<\/a> on Nov. 25.<\/p>\n Lakers star Luka Doncic<\/a> was a vocal critic of the court, calling it “dangerous” to play on.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n The court, which was provided by the NBA to all 30 teams as a promotional tool for the nascent tournament, was returned to the vendor for repairs and was apparently not ready in time for Wednesday’s game.<\/p>\n A league source told ESPN the decision to play the Lakers-Spurs game on L.A.’s standard court was made “out of an abundance of caution.”<\/p>\n The Orlando Magic<\/a> also used their standard home court when hosting the Miami Heat<\/a> in their 117-108 win in the NBA Cup quarterfinals for the Eastern Conference bracket on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The Lakers hosted their final Cup game of the group stage, a 129-119 win over the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> on Nov. 28, on their standard court too, following Doncic’s concerns.<\/p>\n “I really appreciate the Lakers and the league,” Doncic said after the court swap was put in place. “They did us a favor. I was talking about it, so I really appreciate both of them, just changing the court and giving us [a chance to] stay healthy.”<\/p>\n While Doncic was not a fan of the court, he did endorse the overall competition.<\/p>\n “I like it a lot,” Doncic said of the NBA Cup, now in its third year. “Back in Spain, I used to play in the Copa del Rey [de Baloncesto]. It was in February, but it was the same concept. So I welcome that, and I like the Cup a lot.”<\/p>\n The winner of Wednesday’s Lakers-Spurs game will advance to the Cup semifinals and play the winner of Wednesday’s Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>–Phoenix Suns<\/a> game in Las Vegas on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave McMenaminDec 10, 2025, 05:15 PM ET CloseLakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. Covered the Lakers and NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-341914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCovered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09.<\/p>\n