Lakers overcome their mistakes in 121-107 win over Spurs

For a team that couldn’t go out to celebrate LeBron James’ birthday, the Los Angeles Lakers were out of sorts in the first half of their game against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday. Despite their sloppy play, the Lakers were able to stay in control for most of the game, and they won by a comfortable margin of 121-107.

Anthony Davis set the tone for the Lakers early by playing with aggression that he lacked in the first half of the Lakers’ game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday. Not only did Davis attack the Spurs offensively, scoring 20 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field, but he offered the Lakers some much-needed rim protection, recording two blocks in the first quarter. His two blocks were also his first two blocks of the season.

It wouldn’t be a LeBron James birthday game without LeBron James, though. On the day of his 36th birthday, James made a little bit of history by notching his 1,000th consecutive game with at least 10 points, which is the NBA record by a lot. Michael Jordan’s streak of 866 straight 10-point games is a distant second. James has scored in double figures in 1,262 of the 1,270 games he’s played. He’s really, really good, and he hasn’t showed any signs of slowing down.

It was also a productive night for the Lakers’ guards — particularly Wesley Matthews, who broke out of his shooting slump in a big way on Wednesday. After failing to make a 3-pointer in his first four appearances, Matthews made all six of his 3-point attempts. If he’s going to shoot 100% from behind the arc for the rest of the season, the Lakers have a real shot at repeating.

The Lakers will stay in San Antonio for their New Year’s Eve before playing the Spurs again on Friday night. Tip-off will be at 5 p.m.

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