A pair of early-season Western Conference powers will meet Wednesday when the San Antonio Spurs visit the Los Angeles Lakers.
Only the defending league champion Oklahoma City Thunder sit higher in the West standings through two weeks of the season than the Spurs and Lakers.
San Antonio will have to use the visit as a status check after the Spurs lost for the first time this season on Sunday at Phoenix. After allowing 103.8 points per game through their first five contests, they fell 130-118 to the Suns in a game where they trailed by as many as 31 points.
The Spurs were backpedaling from the jump, allowing 31 points on 61.1% shooting from the Suns in the first quarter. It only got worse as the Suns led 70-52 at halftime on 63.2% shooting. Phoenix opened the third quarter on a 27-14 run to take a 97-66 lead.
Spurs star Victor Wembanyama was held to a season-low nine points on 4-of-14 shooting after he had just one single-digit scoring game last season. He was also held to a season-low nine rebounds while committing a season-high six turnovers.
“I think it’s a great time for us to take away a lot of things from this game,” said Wembanyama, who credited the Suns’ double-teaming defense for disrupting the offense. “We’re going to see this again and again, so every single game is a battle to prepare. … I know our next opponent watched this game, so our preparation starts now.”
Rookie Dylan Harper scored 12 points in 11 minutes before going down with a calf injury for San Antonio, which was hoping that point guard De’Aaron Fox (hamstring) would make his season debut Wednesday but reportedly is still out.
Stephon Castle, last season’s NBA Rookie of the Year, has progressed even further in Fox’s absence to average 20.0 points with 6.2 rebounds and a team-high 5.3 assists.
Los Angeles knows all about injury issues and yet has fashioned a 6-2 record without LeBron James (sciatica) so far this season. Luka Doncic has missed four games, leaving the Lakers without two of the league’s top stars, and yet they won three of those games.
The latest game without James and Doncic (leg) came Monday at Portland when Los Angeles also was without Austin Reaves (groin). They still fashioned a 123-115 victory while playing on the second night of a home/road back-to-back.
Deandre Ayton scored 29 points with 10 rebounds in the victory and Rui Hachimura had 28 points. Nick Smith Jr. had 25 points off the bench on 10-of-15 shooting, including 5 of 6 from 3-point range.
“They’ve seen what I can do in training camp, and the coaching staff is definitely putting an emphasis to go out there and play my game,” Smith said. “If they’re pressuring you, go make a play. That’s something that I haven’t gotten in a long time.”
Smith, who is on a two-way contract, was playing in his third NBA game this season.
“He just took the game over,” said Lakers coach JJ Redick. “… Truthfully, it was a perfect game for him.”
Ayton, who was signed by the Lakers in July days after he was released by the Trail Blazers, had a season high in points with his third double-digit rebounding performance.
