16 December 2023 , 12:50
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Victor Wembanyama helped prevent the San Antonio Spurs from extending its franchise-record losing streak - and defeated LeBron James in the process.
Friday night saw the Spurs face the Los Angeles Lakers in the second of back-to-back games in the NBA. The first ended in a defeat for the Spurs on Wednesday, but James missed the game through injury. However, the Lakers legend was back on Friday as San Antonio recorded a 129-115 victory, to move to 4-20 for the year with Wembanyama recording 13 points, 15 rebounds, and five assists.
Before the win over the Lakers, the Spurs last win came in November when they beat the Phoenix Suns and moved the team to 3-2 at the time.
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Wembanyama played a key role in getting the long-awaited win for the Spurs in what was also the first meeting between James and Wembanyama. The rookie, who was drafted with the number one overall pick in June's NBA Draft, went on to explain how it felt to get a much-needed victory at Frost Bank Center.
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"Kind of felt like a playoff game to me," Wembanyama told reporters on Friday, via ESPN. "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 a** off."
James scored 23 points with seven rebounds and 14 assists, but could not prevent the Lakers from losing a second game out of three since the team's triumph in the In-Season Tournament. The 38-year-old, who is playing in his 21st season in the NBA, praised the Spurs for the victory but pointed to a reason why his team could not get the win.
“Our team is not built to have three starters out,” James told reporters, via NBA.com. "But you can give credit where credit is due. San Antonio played great tonight. They shot the ball extremely well."
Anthony Davis missed the defeat to the Spurs with a hip injury, while Cam Reddish and D'Angelo Russell were also sidelined. The Lakers face a busy schedule in the run-up to Christmas, starting with a return home to Crypto.com Arena to face the New York Knicks on Monday night
LeBron James scored 23 points as the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the San Antonio Spurs (Ronald Cortes/Getty Images)That will be followed by three consecutive road games against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Chicago Bulls, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. James says the Lakers, who fell to 15-11 for the year with the loss to the Spurs, will be prioritizing their own health and well-being going into the festive schedule.
"That's going to be challenging on us," said James. "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."