SAN ANTONIO — When the Spurs’ starters checked out for good with 1:40 remaining Friday night, it was a different feeling.
Victor Wembanyama and Devin Vassell walked to the end of the bench, high-fiving teammates on the way there. Following the Spurs’ 129-115 win over the Los Angeles Lakers, the two shared a long embrace as San Antonio ended a franchise-record 18-game losing streak.
It was the Spurs’ fourth win of the season, but it wasn’t just any win for them.
«A hundred percent it didn’t feel like a normal win,» Vassell said. «You see people jumping around on the sideline and everything. … I’m trying to stay composed. But at the end of the day, it’s special. This is a special group.»
Wembanyama said «it’s been a minute» since the Spurs had won a game, so it did feel a little better than usual.
«Kind of felt like a playoff game to me,» Wembanyama said. «But of course we have to feel good about it. We love that feeling. We want to repeat it, so yeah, we’re going to keep working our ass off.»
It was the second game in three nights in San Antonio for the Lakers, who defeated 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 overall pick from the 2003 draft and the No. 1 overall pick from 2023.
In the final minute of the second quarter, James hit a corner 3-pointer over Wembanyama as the Lakers were making their 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 said, «Of course.»
«That was a high-arcing shot,» Wembanyama said.
James said he tried to get Wembanyama’s hands to go down just a little because of his massive wingspan and ability to block shots outside of his comfort zone.
Vassell had 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 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 Nov. 2 against the Phoenix Suns. In that game, the Spurs let a 27-point lead dwindle down to a tie game late in the fourth quarter before Wembanyama led his team to victory.
After that game, Wembanyama said one thing he had learned to that point in the NBA was that 20-point leads are nothing. Since then, the Spurs had struggled to keep any kind of lead.
Entering Friday, the Spurs were 1-9 in games this season in which they led by as many as 10 points, including eight consecutive defeats, tied for the most such losses in NBA history over the past 25 years.
It looked like history could repeat itself as a 25-point first-half lead was cut to as little as four by the Lakers before halftime. But instead, the Spurs bounced back and extended the lead in the third quarter before pulling away in the fourth.
Following the win, loud music could be heard emanating from the Spurs’ locker room. While Vassell was talking to reporters during his news conference, he was interrupted by joyous, celebratory screams coming from behind the wall he sat in front of.
Keldon Johnson, who had 17 points, said it was big to be able to celebrate the moment as a team.
«We’re a close group,» Johnson said. «We stick together. We win ‘em together, we lose ‘em together. … It’s huge to be able to celebrate with my brothers.»
Despite the victory, the Spurs knew this was just one game in an 82-game season and were quick to point out the goal now is to stretch this into better play moving forward.
«We know we’ve been trending 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 catch a couple breaks, make some more shots. We knew our defense was getting better, so we feel good about it.»
Jeremy Sochan, who has reverted back to playing forward after being the Spurs’ starting point guard through the first 19 games of the season, said he hopes the team can «make this a habit again.»
«It’s not going to be perfect,» Sochan said. «But let’s keep going with this.»
It was the Lakers’ second game this season with James on the floor while Davis sat out. The first such game resulted in a 34-point loss to the Houston Rockets on Nov. 8.
Friday night marked the third game in four nights for the Lakers, who also played at Dallas on Tuesday in a tough loss, coming off their time in Las Vegas for the in-season tournament. They will return home Monday when they host the New York Knicks before embarking on a three-game road trip — another stretch of three games in four days at Chicago, Minnesota and Oklahoma City.
«That’s going to be challenging on us,» James said. «We got to mentally and physically prepare ourselves. We got to take care of our bodies. We got to get our sleep. We got to get our nutrition. We got to hydrate. We got to, whatever we got to do to refuel because the games are going to continue to come.»