SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Spurs look to bounce back from a rare loss when they host the road-weary Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. San Antonio trailed the entire game and dropped a 97-94 decision to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday for just its third loss in the last 18 games.
The game will be the second to the last time Spurs fans will see future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant in a Lakers uniform in the Alamo City. Bryant announced that he will be retiring at the end of the season. Spurs fans' final chance to see Bryant at the AT&T Center will be on Feb. 16.
Recommended Videos
The Lakers are well too familiar with losing - not to mention hotels and room service meals - as they fell to 1-5 on an eight-game road trip with Wednesday's 123-122 overtime loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Los Angeles is just 2-13 on the road and has allowed 100 or more points in each of its last 12 overall games - losing 11 of them.
San Antonio doesn't have too many off-nights but certainly had one against the Raptors as it committed 17 turnovers and scored just two fast-break points.
"It was just one of those nights, I guess, if I had an answer for it I would try to fix it," power forward LaMarcus Aldridge told reporters. "But we definitely started out sluggish and it ended up hurting us in the long run."
ABOUT THE LAKERS (3-19): Los Angeles coach Byron Scott recently demoted forward Julius Randle and rookie point guard D'Angelo Russell to the bench, but the two youngsters kept the Lakers in the mix for a victory in Wednesday's game. Randle had 20 points and 12 rebounds for his third straight double-double and sixth in seven games while Russell scored a season-best 23 points. "They haven't been moping around or anything like that," Scott told reporters. "It's a big boys' league, simple as that. Just have to come to work every day."
ABOUT THE SPURS (18-5): San Antonio is hoping small forward Kawhi Leonard will be back to full strength after a Philly cheesesteak sandwich prompted a bout of gastroenteritis. Leonard sat out Monday's game against the Philadelphia 76ers and had just nine points and seven rebounds while being limited to 27 minutes against Toronto. "I thought towards the end of the game, he started to look fairly normal again," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said afterward. "But he obviously wasn't himself."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Lakers split two visits to San Antonio last season, with the victory being a 112-110 overtime win.
2. San Antonio SG Danny Green has failed to reach double digits in scoring in nine straight games and is shooting just 27 percent from the field during the stretch.
3. Los Angeles SF Kobe Bryant has scored 14 or fewer points in three of the past four games.
Copyright: Sports Direct