Spurs end 18-game skid, top Lakers for first win since Nov. 2

SAN ANTONIO – When the San Antonio Spurs starters left the game for good with 1:40 left Friday night, it was a different feeling.

Victor Wembanyama and Devin Vassell walked to the end of the bench, congratulating their teammates on the way. After the Spurs' 129-115 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, the two shared a long embrace as the Spurs ended a franchise-record 18-game losing streak.

It was Spurs' fourth win of the season, but it wasn't just any win for them.

“One hundred percent, it didn’t feel like a normal win,” Vassell said. “You see people jumping on the sidelines and everything…I try to stay calm. But at the end of the day, it's special. It's a special group.”

Wembanyama said “it's been a minute” since Spurs last won a game, so it was a little better than usual.

“For me it was kind of like a playoff game,” Wembanyama said. “But of course we have to feel good. We like that feeling. We want to repeat it, so yeah, we're going to keep pushing.”

It was the second game in three nights in San Antonio for the Lakers, who beat the Spurs on Wednesday without LeBron James in the lineup. James returned for Friday's game, but the team was without Anthony Davis, Cam Reddish and D'Angelo Russell.

James, who finished with 23 points, 14 assists and 7 rebounds, played 36 minutes in the first meeting between the No. 1 pick in the 2003 draft and the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft.

In the final minute of the second quarter, James scored a corner 3-pointer over Wembanyama as the Lakers made a comeback to cut the lead to a two-possession game.

When Wembanyama was asked if he could feel the eyes of everyone in the arena on him at that moment, he replied, “Of course.”

“It was a high arc shot,” Wembanyama said.

James said he tried to get Wembanyama's hands down a bit because of his massive wingspan and ability to block shots outside of his comfort zone.

Vassell scored a career-high 36 points and Wembanyama had 13 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals. It was Wembanyama's fifth multi-block, multi-steal game of the year, tied with Davis for the most games in the NBA this season. It was also the fourth time a Spurs rookie finished a game with at least 10 points, 15 rebounds and 5 assists; David Robinson did it twice and Tim Duncan did it once.

San Antonio won for the first time since November 2 against the Phoenix Suns. In that game, the Spurs let a 27-point lead shrink to a tie late in the fourth quarter before Wembanyama led his team to victory.

After that game, Wembanyama said one of the things he's learned so far in the NBA is that 20-point leads are nothing. Since then, Spurs have struggled to maintain any kind of lead.

As of Friday, the Spurs were 1-9 in games this season in which they led by as many as 10 points, including eight straight losses, tied for the most such losses in franchise history. the NBA for the past 25 years.

It looked like history might repeat itself as the 25-point first-half lead was cut to just four by the Lakers before halftime. But instead, the Spurs bounced back and extended their lead in the third quarter before pulling away in the fourth.

After the victory, loud music could be heard emanating from the Spurs locker room. As Vassell spoke to reporters at his news conference, he was interrupted by shouts of joy and celebration coming from behind the wall he was sitting in front of.

Keldon Johnson, who had 17 points, said it was great to be able to celebrate the moment as a team.

“We’re a tight-knit group,” Johnson said. “We stick together. We win them together, we lose them together. … It's huge to be able to celebrate with my brothers.”

Despite the victory, Spurs knew it was still just one game in an 82-game season and were quick to point out that the goal now was to expand this game to improve the game at the future.

“We know we're going in the right direction, so nobody's shocked as far as the players go,” Spurs center Zach Collins said. “We just knew we had to get some breaks and make some more shots. We knew our defense was getting better, so we feel good.”

Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan, who returned to playing as a striker after being the team's starting point guard through the first 19 games of the season, said he hopes the team can “take that back a habit”.

“It’s not going to be perfect,” Sochan said. “But let’s get on with it.”

It was the Lakers' second game this season with James on the floor while Davis was out. The first such game ended in a 34-point loss to the Houston Rockets on November 8.

Friday night was the third game in four nights for the Lakers, who also played at Dallas on Tuesday in a tough loss, after finishing their trip to Las Vegas for the season's tournament. They will return home on Monday when they host the New York Knicks before immediately embarking on a three-game road trip – another stretch of three games in four days in Chicago, Minnesota and Oklahoma City.

“It’s going to be a challenge for us,” James said. “We have to prepare mentally and physically. We have to take care of our bodies. We have to sleep. We have to feed ourselves. We have to hydrate. We have to, whatever we can do, refuel because the games are going to continue come.”