There's something almost cruel about watching Luka Doncic put up 38 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists — his 86th career triple-double — and knowing it changed absolutely nothing.
The San Antonio Spurs beat the Los Angeles Lakers 107-91 on Wednesday night at Frost Bank Center. The final margin doesn't tell you how lopsided it felt. This was a mugging dressed up as a basketball game.
And while Doncic was busy adding to his historical résumé (seventh all-time in triple-doubles, per ESPN), the Spurs were calmly demonstrating why depth isn't some luxury talking point — it's survival.
The Keldon Johnson experience
Let's start with the guy nobody expected to lead this thing.
Keldon Johnson came off the bench and dropped 27 points on 11-of-13 shooting. That's 84.6 percent from the field. Against a team fighting for playoff seeding. In a nationally televised game. The man went 14 points in the first half and the Lakers had no answer for him — not in the post, not on switches, not anywhere.
Johnson recently passed Marco Belinelli for fifth on the Spurs' all-time bench scoring list, according to the San Antonio Express-News. He's now sitting at 2,275 career bench points. The only Spur above him who actually made a career of sixth man work? Manu Ginobili. That's the company he's keeping.
And yes, this is the same Johnson who told The Athletic last month he'd use his NBA Cup prize money to buy more llamas for his ranch outside San Antonio. "Longhorn Ranch" — goats, cows, horses, a donkey, chickens, no staff. Just Johnson and his family running the place. The llamas, he said, would fit right in.
He plays "Party in the U.S.A." before every Spurs game. Teammates roll their eyes. Rookies learn the lyrics just to keep up. This is what winning culture looks like when it doesn't take itself too seriously.
Wembanyama off the bench? Still a problem.
Victor Wembanyama played 26 minutes. Off the bench. In his second game back from a hyperextended knee.
He finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks, and two steals.
That's a double-double on a minutes restriction while still recovering from injury. The Lakers had no rim protection when he was on the floor. None. Jarred Vanderbilt tried. Deandre Ayton tried. Wembanyama swatted both of them in the third quarter and the game was effectively over.
"His pitch is just always, 'I can play. I'm ready to go. I'm good to go,'" Spurs coach Mitch Johnson told reporters before the game, per Yahoo Sports. "You respect that and you love that mentality."
This was Wembanyama's first win against Doncic since entering the league. It won't be his last.
Where was everybody else?
Here's the reality the Lakers are facing: LeBron James didn't play. Austin Reaves didn't play. Rui Hachimura didn't play.
James was ruled out 90 minutes before tip-off with left foot arthritis and right sciatica, per ESPN. He hasn't played a back-to-back all season. After Tuesday's win in New Orleans, he told reporters point-blank: "Every back-to-back for the rest of the season is TBD. I am 41. I got the most minutes in NBA history. Bank it right now."
That's not cryptic. That's honest. The man is managing a 23-year career's worth of mileage, and JJ Redick knows it.
But here's the problem: when James sits, the Lakers become Luka Doncic plus whoever's available. Wednesday night, "whoever" meant Jake LaRavia (16 points), Jaxson Hayes (10), and Marcus Smart shooting 1-for-6 while committing four turnovers.
Doncic finished with seven turnovers himself. He had to. Everything ran through him — a 45.3% usage rate when James, Reaves, and Hachimura are off the floor together, according to DraftKings data. That's absurd. That's also unsustainable.
The standings don't lie
The Spurs improved to 26-11. They're second in the Western Conference now, chasing Oklahoma City.
The Lakers dropped to 23-12, sliding to fifth. Three-game win streak over. The narrative that LA could challenge for a top-two seed? On hold until they get healthy.
San Antonio shot 4-for-25 from three. Sixteen percent. They still won by 16.
That's what happens when your bench outscores the other team's starters, when your recovering franchise player puts up a double-double on limited action, and when your sixth man plays like a frontline starter while planning his next livestock purchase.
Doncic can't do this alone. He proved it again Wednesday. Thirty-eight points and nothing to show for it except another stat line that'll age better than the result.
Somewhere in Texas Hill Country, Keldon Johnson is probably texting his family about the llama.