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The San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers will be working in a quick turnaround when the teams square off Wednesday night in a Western Conference clash in the Alamo City.

The game will be the second in a back-to-back set for the teams, with San Antonio traveling from Salt Lake City and the Lakers playing in Phoenix on Tuesday.

The Spurs head home after a rousing 128-115 victory over the Utah Jazz on Tuesday for their season-high fourth straight win. It’s the first time San Antonio has won four in a row since the 2021-22 campaign.

Victor Wembanyama scored 24 of his 34 points in the first half to lead San Antonio on Tuesday in the NBA Cup game. Stephon Castle added a career-high-tying 23 points, and Julian Champagnie scored 15.

San Antonio improved to 2-1 in Group B play, staying alive for a chance to advance to the West quarterfinals.

“Every team’s good. People know your stuff, tendencies for individuals, plays that you run, all those types of things,” Spurs interim coach Mitch Johnson said. “So you just kind of need a consistency of your identity to do the job, and I thought in the second half we did a good job of that.”

San Antonio was up just 103-100 midway through the fourth quarter but reeled off a 13-3 run capped by a 3-pointer from Champagnie. After the Jazz cut the lead to single digits, Chris Paul’s pullup 3-pointer with 2:08 left gave San Antonio a 12-point edge and all but iced the game.

“Tonight we had to just play a little harder and be a little more assertive late, and that made the difference in the fourth quarter,” Champagnie said after Tuesday’s victory. “We kind of had to match (Utah’s) energy if we wanted to win this game. That was kind of the only way we could get things going.”

The Lakers limp into San Antonio after a 127-100 loss to the Suns. Los Angeles dropped its third straight game and fell into a tie with Phoenix and San Antonio in the West Group B standings; all three teams have a game left to play.

Tuesday’s game went back and forth through the first half before the Lakers surrendered a 14-2 run in the middle of the third quarter. Los Angeles never threatened again. Even though the first tiebreaker in the NBA Cup is point differential, the Lakers fell further behind in the game, trailing by as many as 27 points with 4 1/2 minutes to play.

Anthony Davis recorded 25 points and 15 rebounds for the Lakers in the loss. LeBron James collected 18 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds while D’Angelo Russell had 16 points off the bench and Austin Reeves added 15.

Russell continues to draw praise from Los Angeles coach JJ Redick for his contributions, which have become more consistent since Russell moved from the starting lineup to lead the reserves.

“(Russell) has been great for us, orchestrating defensively and his activity,” said Redick, who emphasized that Russell’s play is more important than just his scoring. “That stuff does not go overlooked.”

The Lakers posted a 120-115 victory over the host Spurs on Nov. 15 in the NBA Cup opener. After Wednesday, the teams will play twice more this season, in Los Angeles.

–Field Level Media