Before attending Tuesday’s game between my Spurs and the hometown Lakers, I investigated how the teams have performed against each other over the years. A bit of research revealed that the Spurs have a winning record against every team in the NBA except one – the Lakers. The all-time regular season record going into Tuesday’s game was Lakers 133, Spurs 118. (Spoiler alert: the score is now 133-119.) Broken down by decade:
1970s (Lakers, 9-5)
1980s (Lakers, 42-22)
1990s (Spurs, 30-19)
2000s (Lakers, 35-29)
2010s (Spurs, 25-14)
2020s (Lakers, 14-5)
So you don’t have to do the research, the second best record against the Spurs is held by the Phoenix Suns, with the Spurs leading that series 128-114. The worst? The Brooklyn Nets, which has a 31-81 record against the Spurs, and presumably have a losing record against every team in the league. No, I am not going to do the research to confirm.
This is a long way of saying that the Spurs and the Lakers have a long history against each other, hard-fought and evenly matched. The highlight may have been the six-year stretch 1999-2004, as the clubs faced each other in the playoffs in every one of those seasons, with the winner advancing to the NBA Finals each year and the NBA Championship for the first five years of that stretch. In 2004, the Pistons broke the streak by beating the Lakers in the Finals. We all remember that the Lakers made the Finals in 2004 largely because of the Derek Fisher 0.4 shot over My Man Manu in Game Five of the Western Conference Semi-Finals. What we try not to remember is the final score of that game: 74-73. Looking at that score raises the question: Did teams only play three quarters in those days?
The rivalry continued to be great through about 2013, when it essentially went away. In November of 2019, I wrote the following:
But after the 2nd seed Spurs swept the 7th seed Lakers in the first round of the playoffs in 2013, the Lakers went off a cliff. Over the next six seasons, the Lakers finished in 14th, 14th, 15th, 14th, 11th and 10th place in the West. I knew the Lakers had put together a string of bad seasons, but looking back at that string of disastrous years is stunning. Put simply, the Lakers stunk — while the Spurs continued to excel, going 2nd, 1st, 6th, 2nd, 2nd, 7th and 7th. The first five of those years saw another Spurs’ championship and strong contender status each year until the last two.
The lack of a present rivalry grew out of the Lakers’ ineptitude for a lengthy period of time. Put simply, the Lakers were no longer a worthy rival, and thus killed the rivalry. And while the Lakers are back in the driver’s seat this season, the allure of a Lakers — Spurs game has died.
Four months after that article, the pandemic shut down the NBA. Soon thereafter, the Lakers, led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, won the 2020 Bubble Championship. And in the following years, the Spurs became the bad team in the faded rivalry. Thankfully, they turned their bad fortune into gold, striking lottery gold in three consecutive seasons by getting Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper. Time will tell whether those three will eventually be seen as the three best back-to-back-to-back draft picks in NBA history. Of course, the present Spurs squad also carries on the organization’s tradition of having scrap heap/end of the draft guys playing crucial roles: DannyGreen!!, Patty Mills, Boris Diaw (all cut by other teams) and Manu Ginobili (2nd round) from the Beautiful Game Spurs, and Julian Champagnie (undrafted), Luke Kornet (undrafted) and Keldon Johnson (29th pick) on this year’s team.
Thanks to my friends Ken and Kim, I had four tickets to Tuesday’s game at Staples/Crypto Arena. I attended with three fellow hoops enthusiasts, though I was the only Spurs fan in the foursome. Two of the others are Laker fans, while the third is a lost Knicks fan, a long way from home. The Knicks fan is also a Jets fan, so we tried to steer our conversation far away from any mention of football. That is what friends do for each other. And with the Lakers totally chickening out and sitting their three best players, our Jets fan probably felt right at home with one team much better than the other.
Who else believes that the Lakers would not have sat their best players for a Spurs game back when this was the best rivalry in the league? Kobe, Shaq, Gasol, Horry, Fox, Odom, and D Fish would not have missed a Spurs game, just as the Big Three and their teammates would not have missed a chance to compete with the Lakers. Times have changed.
Once we heard how many Lakers were skipping the game, Knick Fan Marc texted me, “Still want to go?” I don’t know if he was serious or not – but I was clearly going to this game. The other three also attended. Looking up at the sell-out crowd, no one else bailed, either. And all of us who attended got to see something that we may never see again.
Lee Dresie
Our four seats were essentially baseline extended at the Spurs end of the court, opposite the Spurs bench, so we had the perfect view to see Victor go 8 for 9 from the floor in those first 8 minutes minus one second. (The picture below of Victor’s free throw shows our view.) If anyone at the game is ever asked about incredible things we have witnessed in person, we will have those 8 minutes from Spurs at Lakers on February 10, 2026.
Lee Dresie
Other thoughts
Whenever I report on these games in Los Angeles, I keep an eye out for the number of Spurs jerseys in the stands. “Back in the day”, when the rivalry was hot, there were always a good percentage of Spurs fans. During the dark years beginning in 2020, that percentage went way down. With the Spurs riding the wave with their great young talent, I hoped Spurs fans would turn out in force for this game. And the LA-area Spurs fans turned out. I sat next to Spurs fan Steve in his Victor jersey. Steve is not from Texas but became a fan when the Great Duncan joined the team, and he remains one today. Two rows in front of me, and one row behind me, were guys with #5 Castle jerseys. In line behind us before the game was a #10 DeRozan and a #20 Ginobili. And I need to get my wife this blanket/serape/jacket for cold (LA defined) winter nights.
Lee Dresie
Also a shout out to the Laker fans who stayed until the end – and that was most of them. I suppose spending all that money to see the Lakers, even though the best of them chose not to play, encourages people to try to get their money’s worth. And they got to see Bronny James actually play fairly well in the fourth quarter. The biggest cheer of the night came when Bronny made a step back three over Kelly Olynyk in the fourth quarter, cutting the Spurs’ lead to a zillion.
We also got to witness a Gonzaga vs. Gonzaga match-up in the fourth quarter. Olynyk vs Drew Timme. Not quite Wilt vs. Russell, but it was still fun. Timme outscored Olynyk 14-8, but Olynyk’s team won. Hmm, somewhat like the old Wilt vs. Russell games, right?