Spurs-Lakers Reaction: Wembanyama & Keldon DOMINATE Luka Doncic & LA | The Dime With Josh and Kwab

SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs didn’t shoot well. They didn’t look especially crisp for long stretches. They didn’t have their most polished offensive performance.

They still won by 16.

Behind a 27-point night from Keldon Johnson and another game-altering defensive stretch from Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs handled the Los Angeles Lakers 107–91 on Wednesday, turning a choppy offensive evening into a methodical, paint-first second half that buried a depleted L.A. roster.

It was the kind of win good teams file away quietly: not a masterpiece, but a reminder of floor, depth, and identity. San Antonio went 4-for-25 from three yet controlled the game by consistently forcing the issue inside and overwhelming a Lakers group that lacked rim protection, ball-handling support, and scoring outlets beyond Luka Dončić.

“Light work,” Spurs fans joked afterward. The final score agreed.

Box Score Headlines: Keldon Leads, Wemby Impacts, Spurs Pull Away

San Antonio’s stat leaders told the story of a team that didn’t need perfect conditions to win:

Keldon Johnson: 27 points, 6 rebounds
Victor Wembanyama: 16 points, 4 blocks (in limited minutes)
Stephon Castle: 15 points, 5 assists

For the Lakers, Luka Dončić did everything he could to keep the game within reach:

Dončić: 38 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists (triple-double)

But the supporting cast never arrived consistently enough to make it a fight. Jake LaRavia provided an efficient 16 points, while Jaxson Hayes chipped in 10 points and 7 rebounds. Still, the overall offensive picture for Los Angeles was bleak: open threes missed, secondary playmaking absent, and the paint largely owned by San Antonio once the Spurs made a tactical shift after halftime.

Context Matters: Lakers Down LeBron, Reaves, and Hachimura

The Lakers entered the night significantly undermanned, playing without:

LeBron James
Austin Reaves
Rui Hachimura

That’s three starters and a massive chunk of their creation, shooting, and two-way reliability. Without them, Los Angeles essentially became a one-star offense: Dončić orchestrating almost every meaningful action while trying to manufacture points for teammates who struggled to convert.

In the modern NBA, one elite creator can keep you competitive for a while. But to win on the road against a young, athletic team, you need at least one of two things:

enough shooting to punish help defense
enough defense and rebounding to turn the game into a low-possession grind

The Lakers had neither for long enough.

And even though San Antonio was not at its best offensively—especially early—the Spurs were able to win the possession and paint battles so convincingly that the missing Lakers bodies became the dominant factor by the fourth quarter.

The First Half: Spurs Missed Shots, But Stayed in Control

The game didn’t begin like a blowout. In fact, for much of the first half, it felt like San Antonio was leaving the door open.

The Spurs couldn’t buy a perimeter jumper. The three-point misses stacked up. The overall offensive rhythm was inconsistent. There were possessions where the ball stuck, possessions where drives ended without clear advantages, and sequences where San Antonio looked like a team waiting to “wake up” rather than a team imposing itself.

But there was a crucial difference between “not playing well” and “losing control”: the Spurs still defended, still competed on the glass, and still had multiple pathways to generate points—particularly through physical interior play and transition pressure.

Even in a half where they weren’t sharp, the Spurs never looked overwhelmed.

The Lakers, meanwhile, were living on a thinner wire. When you’re missing three starters, your margin for error disappears. Every empty possession hurts more. Every missed open three feels like a wasted gift. And by halftime, the pattern was forming: Dončić could create quality looks, but L.A. could not consistently finish them.

The Turning Point: San Antonio Ditched the Jumper and “Pounded the Paint”

The second half unfolded with a simple adjustment that looked obvious in hindsight: San Antonio stopped pretending it needed to win with jump shots.

Instead, the Spurs leaned into what the matchup was screaming:

get the ball inside
attack the rim
force rotations
live with the physical game
and make the Lakers defend repeated paint touches without a true defensive backbone

Once San Antonio committed to that approach, the game shifted from “annoying” to “inevitable.”

Los Angeles had no consistent rim deterrence, and the Spurs’ size—especially with Wembanyama’s presence—made every Lakers paint attempt feel contested while every Spurs paint touch felt like an advantage.

This is where Keldon Johnson’s value became the centerpiece. Johnson is at his best when games turn into collisions: strong drives, quick decisions, and a willingness to finish through contact. Against a thin Lakers front line, he repeatedly created offense without needing a perfect set.

The Spurs didn’t need spacing perfection. They needed pressure. They got it.

Keldon Johnson’s Role Evolution: The Bench Spark That Keeps Showing Up

There’s been a shift in how people talk about Keldon Johnson over the last couple seasons, and this game was a clean example of why.

In prior years, when Johnson carried heavier starting responsibilities, Spurs fans sometimes viewed him through the lens of what he wasn’t: not a primary creator, not a high-level playmaker, not a lockdown defender. That can lead to frustration when a player is asked to do too much.

Now, in a role that fits his strengths—energy scoring, physical downhill attacks, instant pace—Johnson has become one of San Antonio’s most reliable game-shapers.

He didn’t just score 27. He scored 27 in a way that matched the game’s needs:

when jump shots weren’t falling, he created rim pressure
when possessions bogged down, he attacked decisively
when the Lakers’ defense softened, he punished them with volume and force

This is what good teams have: players who can carry a “bad shooting night” into a win by doing something repeatable.

Johnson’s downhill scoring is repeatable.

Wembanyama’s Minutes Restriction, Same Impact: Defense That Changes Behavior

Wembanyama finished with 16 points and 4 blocks, continuing the theme Spurs fans have learned to expect: the box score never fully captures the disruption.

Even in restricted minutes, his impact on the Lakers’ shot selection and confidence was visible. Players hesitated at the rim. Drivers rerouted. Paint attempts turned into kick-outs. And when those kick-outs became open threes, the Lakers often failed to punish the Spurs—one reason Wembanyama’s presence became even more suffocating.

The key detail is that he didn’t need a monster scoring night to tilt this game. His defensive effect was enough to:

shrink L.A.’s workable spacing
reduce the value of Dončić’s passing reads
and create the kind of offensive discomfort that leads to late-clock attempts

When a team is short-handed, those late-clock attempts become backbreakers. You need easy points to survive. Wembanyama deletes “easy.”

Stephon Castle’s Steady Growth: 15 and 5 in a Controlled Win

Stephon Castle’s line—15 points and 5 assists—won’t dominate national headlines, but it mattered in the context of how San Antonio won.

The Spurs didn’t need a guard takeover. They needed competent creation, stable ball movement, and enough shot-making to keep the paint attacks flowing. Castle provided that balance: not forcing the issue into traffic, not turning the game into a track meet unnecessarily, and making enough plays to keep pressure on a Lakers defense that was already stretched thin.

For young teams, one of the biggest growth markers is winning games where the guard play is merely “fine.” San Antonio is increasingly capable of that—because it has depth and defensive anchors.

Luka Dončić’s Lonely Triple-Double: 38/10/10 With Too Little Help

Dončić’s stat line was enormous: 38 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists. He created open shots. He drew help. He dictated tempo when he could.

But by the fourth quarter, the night had that familiar feel: a star generating advantages and looking around for someone else to convert them.

The Lakers’ missed open threes were a recurring theme, and while every missed shot is “on the shooter,” the macro problem for Los Angeles is structural. When you’re missing LeBron and Reaves, you don’t just lose points—you lose:

secondary creation
late-clock bailout options
off-ball gravity
another ball handler to reduce turnover risk

Dončić also finished with seven turnovers, some forced, some the byproduct of trying to do everything. That’s what happens when an offense becomes overly centralized and the opponent doesn’t fear the other options enough to stop helping.

San Antonio was content to live with Dončić scoring as long as it prevented everyone else from finding rhythm. That plan worked.

The Three-Point Reality: Spurs 4-for-25, Still a Blowout

The most impressive (and concerning) number for San Antonio is the same one.

The Spurs shot 4-for-25 from three and still won by 16.

In one way, it’s a testament to resilience: they can win even when the modern NBA’s most important shot isn’t falling. In another, it’s a reminder that the Spurs still have offensive volatility that could become a problem against elite defenses.

But for this game, the missed threes were survivable because:

the Lakers couldn’t punish Spurs help defense with their own shooting
San Antonio kept generating paint touches
and the Spurs’ defense prevented L.A. from stringing together easy runs

A team doesn’t usually win comfortably while shooting that poorly from deep unless it wins multiple other battles decisively.

San Antonio did.

What This Game Said About the Spurs: Depth, Defense, and a Higher Floor

The clearest takeaway for San Antonio wasn’t just “we beat the Lakers.” It was how they beat them:

on a night where the offense looked disjointed early
on a night where the three-point shot disappeared
with Wembanyama not playing full minutes
and with key players not all firing at once

That’s the type of win that suggests a team has a real baseline. The Spurs can now win games with what one commentator called a “C-minus” performance. That’s not about arrogance—it’s about the practical reality of the NBA season: you’re going to have ugly nights. If you can still take those nights and turn them into double-digit wins, you’re building something.

San Antonio’s roster depth matters here. The Spurs can win different ways:

If the guards are hot, they can run.
If the jumpers aren’t there, they can attack the paint.
If the offense is choppy, they can defend and grind.

That versatility is a strong sign of growth.

What This Game Said About the Lakers: Thin Margins and Not Enough Two-Way Stability

It’s fair to put an asterisk on any game where Los Angeles is missing LeBron, Reaves, and Hachimura. But it’s also fair to note that contenders are judged by how they survive adversity—and the Lakers’ roster construction has often looked fragile when key pieces sit.

Without their top options, the Lakers didn’t have enough:

reliable shooting
dependable defense
or lineup combinations that can generate offense without Dončić dominating the ball

The criticism from observers wasn’t that the Lakers have no talent. It’s that they often look like a team with no margin for error—and that’s a dangerous profile in the postseason, where one injury or one cold streak can end a series.

On this night, the Lakers needed to win the “role player game” to compensate for missing stars. They didn’t.