The Los Angeles Lakers beat a healthy San Antonio Spurs team Monday night 101-89 despite the Lakers having key players out with injuries.  Both Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum sat out with injuries in the game while Paul Gasol showed every aspect of his game with 21 points and 19 rebounds.  He added eight assists and five blocks to help fill the void along with Lamar Odom and Ron Artest.  Odom added 16 points with Artest putting up 18.

The Spurs have made it a trend of losing to teams with key players missing as of late.  A loss to the Nuggets without Carmelo Anthony and a loss to the Blazers without Brandon Roy.  The past few weeks have had to have been a bit frustrating for the Spurs.  All of their keys seem to be in place, they just can’t get it done.  “Finishing” a game is not in their vocabulary.  I think Coach Popovich would agree.  Manu Ginobili was the high-scorer for the Spurs with 21 with Tony Parker following close behind with 20.  Tim Duncan added 16 points and 15 rebounds in the tough loss. 

The Spurs have the next two days off after the loss and will take on the Denver Nuggets on Thursday, February 11.  This may be exactly what they need to get it together coming up before the All-Star break.  The Lakers will have a day off before they head to Utah to take on the Jazz.  Kobe Bryant should be back in the lineup, but with the team playing well without him there he probably won’t be a big rush in coming back too early and hurting his ankle any worse. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 4:04 am and is filed under Basketball, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA-West, San Antonio Spurs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.