The San Antonio Spurs swept the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round but it wasn't without its cost. In Game 3 of the series, Tiago Splitter injured his left ankle late in the game and is out indefinitely.

Splitter was having a great series versus the Lakers' Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol defensively. He was playing tough in the paint, pushing Howard and Gasol out of their comfort spot while averaging 5 points, 2.3 assists, and 4 rebounds in 23 minutes per game.

Now that the Spurs will be off the court for about one week as they wait for their opponent in round two, Splitter can use the time to recover and it already seems he is on the fast-track to recovery. He recently took to Twitter to give fans an update on his injury and it is good news Spurs fans.

All it took was a week (literally) for the San Antonio Spurs to defeat and eliminate the injury-plagued Los Angeles Lakers, as Sunday was the final game of the Lakers’ 2013 campaign, where the Spurs once more blew them out on their own floor 103-82.

It was a tale of two “stars” on Sunday, as Tony Parker led the Spurs like any captain would in a battle to put away the enemy - by leading his charge with 23 points and four assists to send D-League guards Andrew Goudelock and Darius Morris back to the Summer League at least gaining some experience in competing with one of the NBA’s premier point guards.

The other “star” Dwight Howard, did the opposite Sunday as Howard let his emotions guide him and he eventually ended up watching his team lose from the locker room, as Howard was ejected early in the third quarter with two technical fouls.

As had been the trend in the series, the Lakers, missing a plethora of their key contributors, were able to compete with the Spurs for one or two quarters, but by half Sunday, they already found themselves facing an 18-point deficit.

The matchup of the game for Game 4 will be between Matt Bonner and Dwight Howard.

With Tiago Splitter out, the San Antonio Spurs will be counting on Matt Bonner's contributions throughout the game to sweep the Los Angeles Lakers. Bonner has guarded Howard on the defensive end and Matt hasn't been afraid of giving him hard fouls to help wear him down in the process. The Spurs can't rely on Bonner too much other than his shooting, but that should make the Lakers uncomfortable enough with having to move one of their big men to the perimeter.

What Bonner must do on offense:

The San Antonio Spurs (3-0) will look to sweep the Los Angeles Lakers (0-3) out of the playoffs tonight in Los Angeles but if L.A. wants to avoid getting swept, they'll have to do it without key players.

Steve Nash, Steve Blake, Jodie Meeks, Metta World Peace and of course Kobe Bryant will not play in Game 4 making the Lakers' job at avoiding an early summer vacation that much tougher. However, the Spurs are also limping heading into Game 4 with Boris Diaw and Tiago Splitter (ankle) out tonight.

The Spurs are coming off a 120-89 thrashing of L.A. in Game 3 in Los Angeles. Tim Duncan led the Spurs with 26 points, and nine rebounds.The Spurs shot a whopping 61%, and held a 49-35 rebounding edge and even a 7-3 edge in blocked shots.

And as the Spurs hope to advance to the second-round of the playoffs, here are five things to watch for during tonight's contest:

• The Spurs are 22-5 when Manu Ginobili records 18-or-more points off the bench in the playoffs.

Last night's San Antonio Spurs' win was a lopsided affair versus the Los Angeles Lakers with the Spurs taking a commanding 3-0 lead in this first round playoff series, but the game also featured Tim Duncan showing he can rise up for the dunk despite his age.

Early in the first quarter, Danny Green threw a pretty lob pass to Duncan as he cut to the rim and finished off the alley oop with power.

Check out Duncan with the monster slam.

Andrew Goudelock was called upon by the Los Angeles Lakers in desperation.

The team lost both of its starting guards (Steve Nash and Steve Blake) to injury and had two other on the team that couldn't play the whole game despite a short rotation. This would be his first NBA playoff game with one of the league's most richest franchise's.

A normal player would've probably been nervous and humble going into the game, but Andrew Goudelock was the exact opposite. When asked about guarding Tony Parker, he answered by showing off his confidence in his skills and game.

On the opposite side of the Western Conference playoffs bracket, but only a state away, the Oklahoma City Thunder are reeling from the loss of guard Russell Westbrook for an as of yet undetermined amount of time. Should it prove longer than a week or two, the prohibitive Western Conference Finals will likely see their season fall short of lofty expectations. 

In Los Angeles, regardless of what happens against the San Antonio Spurs, the Lakers season fell apart the moment Kobe Bryant fell to a gruesome Achilles injury. 

It was a seemingly harmless play, a step that Bryant had made thousands of times before in his basketball career. And like that, whatever hopes the Lakers had reclaimed for a playoff run in the second half of the season ended. 

That an entire basketball season could be determined by one misstep, one random collision, is proof enough that so much of what determines an NBA champion is actually out of the hands of the team that wins it. 

The San Antonio Spurs humiliated the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3 120-89 leaving L.A. on the brink of elimination from the playoffs and giving L.A. the worst home playoff loss in Lakers history.

Injuries to the Lakers' roster and being out-manned by San Antonio doesn't help Los Angeles in avoiding a sweep but forward Metta World Peace is being the optimist when it comes to Game 4 this Sunday in L.A.

After the game, Metta said he will "probably" sit out Sunday's game based on his poor performance in Game 3 thus giving the Lakers a better shot at getting their first postseason win.

“(I’m) feeling healthy. (I’m) feeling good.”

That was San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan after posting a dominant 26 points, nine rebounds, and block in his teams rout of the Los Angeles Lakers in Staple Center 120-89, to take a commanding 3-0 series lead.  

How bad was the 31-point loss for the Lakers, who were without all of their starting guards and had to use D-League MVP Andrew Goudelock and Darius Morris in the lineup? The blow out was the worst home playoff loss in Lakers history.

The Spurs collected 30 assists on Friday. Tony Parker was part of the contribution with his 20 points and seven assists. With the passing came more scoring, as five Spurs finished with more than 10 points – Kawhi Leonard matched his playoff average with 12 points, Danny Green broke out of his shooting funk for a night with 11 points, and even DeJuan Blair put up “Tony Parker floaters” according to Dwight Howard with 13 points in the fourth quarter.

UPDATE:  Marcus Spears has updated Tiago Splitter's injury.

X-rays on Splitter's ankle negative. (@SpearsNBAYahoo)

The San Antonio Spurs updated Tiago Splitter's injury against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Injury report: Tiago Splitter suffered a sprained left ankle. He will not return to tonight's game. (@Spurs)