Following two postponements due to wildfires ravaging the area, the Los Angeles Lakers badly wilted in the final quarter of Monday’s home loss to the San Antonio Spurs.
The Lakers will shoot to play a full 48 minutes on Wednesday when they battle the visiting Miami Heat.
San Antonio pummeled the Lakers by outscoring them 37-13 in the fourth quarter to turn a close game into an easy 126-102 triumph.
The contest was the first for Los Angeles since losing 118-97 to the host Dallas Mavericks on Jan. 7. The Lakers have lost three straight entering the matchup with the Heat.
Los Angeles big man Anthony Davis isn’t getting too caught up in the latest loss. He was eager to play in front of the club’s fans and disappointed with the setback, but maintaining perspective wasn’t difficult knowing at least 24 people had died in the fires and thousands had lost their homes, including Lakers coach JJ Redick.
“I’ve been thinking about that a lot. Just, we come out and play — win, lose, draw — this game is over and everything’s still going on in the world,” Davis said. “So, bittersweet in a sense because we still have people who are dealing with real-life situations. And we get to go out here and play basketball. So it’s kinda tough.
“Obviously, we still have a job to do and at some point, we’re going to have to play basketball again, go back to work. We tried to, obviously, get this win. We never want to lose. But with the Rams winning and … us trying to get the win and bring a little bit of joy to the city, for a little bit.”
The Rams finished off a stellar 27-9 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Monday’s NFC wild-card game not long before the contest got away from the Lakers.
San Antonio scored 73 second-half points against Los Angeles’ 40.
Davis played well, scoring 30 points on 13-of-18 shooting with 13 rebounds. LeBron James had 18 points and eight assists but took just 11 shots.
The Heat are 3-2 on a six-game road trip after falling 109-98 at the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday.
The game against the Lakers is the final of Jimmy Butler’s seven-game suspension for detrimental conduct. Miami is trying to shop Butler, but no trade is imminent.
Regardless, Tyler Herro has scored 32 points in each of the past two games and is averaging 25.4 during the road trip. His season average is 24 points per game.
“This is not an overnight thing,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Herro’s play. “I think people only recognize if the scoring average goes up. But his skill set has been really developing for the last three years.”
The big question mark for Herro has been staying healthy. He has never played in more than 67 games in any of his five NBA seasons and was healthy for just 42 games last season.
Now he says his goal is to play in all 82 games, though he understands that’s a long shot.
“It’s early,” Herro said. “I missed 40 games last year. So, if I was to get hurt next game, I could still miss 40 games. Let me knock on some wood. But it’s still early.”
The Heat are hoping to have the services of star center Bam Adebayo, who is questionable to play Wednesday. He injured his lower back during Saturday night’s 119-98 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
Adebayo finished the game against Portland, but his back was sore Monday when he attempted to participate in pregame warmups, and he was scratched from the lineup.
The Heat crushed the Lakers 134-93 on Dec. 4 in Miami for their third straight win over Los Angeles and fifth in the past six meetings. Herro scored 31 points and sank nine 3-pointers.
–Field Level Media
