INDIANAPOLIS – Austin Reaves dribbled around a LeBron James ball screen at the top of the arc to initiate a change to put Indiana Pacers All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton over James on the left wing.
Reaves passed to James, who dribbled and quickly returned the ball to Reaves, who briefly hesitated instead of shooting — he was open after Aaron Nesmith inexplicably moved away from him — and returned the ball to James. Haliburton, sensing the pass, jumped in front of James and slapped the ball away, leading to a Pascal Siakam layup the other way.
Los Angeles had just reduced the gap to seven points, the lowest level after 7 minutes and 29 seconds of the third quarter. But that sequence — which led to a Lakers timeout and Reaves collapsing and throwing a towel near the bench — sparked a 15-3 run to decide the game as the Pacers beat the Lakers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse 109-90 Friday. The Lakers fell to 41-33 and are 2-1 on the six-game road trip. They remain in ninth place in the West.
“Offensively, we didn’t get it done,” James said. “Just tonight we didn’t have it.”
Indeed, it was “one of those nights” for the Lakers. After scoring a game-high 150 points against the Pacers in Los Angeles last weekend, the Lakers were held to a season-low 90 points in a lackluster effort – a 60-point swing.
With 90 points, it was the first time the Lakers had scored below 100 points since January 3. They shot 40.7 percent overall, their fourth lowest mark of the season. That included shooting just 16.7 percent from 3 (5-of-30), their second-lowest mark of the season. Add in their 16 turnovers – compared to just eight for the Pacers – and the Lakers were too tired, ineffective and sloppy to make this game competitive, especially in the second half.
“I thought we were running through the mud a little bit,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “Third game, four nights. You have a double OT game in Milwaukee. Played against a physical Memphis team. You come here and it’s like the Indy 500 as fast as they play. It’s a combination of a lot of different factors.
Coming into the game, the Lakers had won five straight games and were positioning themselves to potentially overtake the Phoenix Suns to enter Play-In Game #7-8. The Suns (43-31) lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday, keeping them two games ahead of the Lakers in the standings. But the Lakers didn’t gain any ground on them either, in what Anthony Davis called another “wasted opportunity.”
“Teams can play well and beat us,” Davis said. “I think the way we lost tonight was a wasted opportunity. We don’t shoot the ball well; you can’t control that. But we didn’t play well defensively. I returned the ball. I wasn’t coming back in transition. …
“We played great basketball and those guys could have shot the ball extremely well and you take your hat off to them. But we didn’t play our style of basketball on both ends of the court and that’s the hardest part.
Indiana never relinquished the lead after a competitive first nine minutes. In a much slower and lower-scoring game than the previous two matchups – the Lakers’ opening 123-109 victory in December and their 150-145 victory last Sunday – the Pacers swarmed the Lakers and fielded a more aggressive and more powerful. defense style.
The Lakers, playing their third game in four nights, frequently played against the shot clock, lacking the offensive verve they have had over the past two months. They were hesitant and passive and too often let the Pacers dictate the terms of engagement. They didn’t come back in transition. Their 16 turnovers led to 16 points for the Pacers. Their half-court defense had too many breakdowns.
“It’s just reckless,” James said of the team’s turnovers. “You have to be able to focus and play and understand that it’s three nights out of four, but that’s not an excuse. No excuses for unusual, unforced turnovers. Some of them, you try to make a play against a teammate or whatever and it gets beat or it’s a turnover attack, you can be OK with those, but some of the unforced ones, you you’re not. You can never agree with that.
Reaves took ownership of his mistakes.
“We just have to be better,” Reaves said. “I have to be better. I had five turnovers. It’s inappropriate. Everyone goes through consecutive and rapid deadlines. So you have to be better as a team. I have to be better individually.
James (16 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists) and Reaves (16 points, 13 rebounds and six assists) both had five turnovers and were unusually poor in their decision-making in key periods. D’Angelo Russell scored just six points on 3-of-14 shooting. Rui Hachimura had 14 points but didn’t grab any rebounds after pulling down 24 rebounds in the last two games (his only two games with two rebounds). season figures).
Davis returned after missing Wednesday’s game at Memphis with a hyperextended left knee. He had 24 points and 15 rebounds, which lowered his averages against the Pacers this season. He entered the contest averaging 38.5 points and 18 rebounds per game against Indiana this season.
Ham noticed that Davis’ knee had hit him.
“You could tell he was running a little cautiously,” Ham said. “It got better in the second half as the match progressed. His body became much hotter. But I take my hat off to him. The kid is a soldier. I wanted to be there for his team and he was. And he gave everything he could. That’s why he is what he is. He cares.”
Davis admitted to some soreness, but said it wasn’t an injury that would keep him out of future games.
“Nothing serious,” Davis said. “That’s why I played tonight. I felt like I could play through it. Nothing where I plan on missing any more games or having to be on a minutes restriction or anything like that.
The next stop on their Lakers road trip is Sunday in Brooklyn. Gabe Vincent is expected to return after missing the last 46 games (and 69 games total this season) according to Athleticism‘s Shams Charania. Vincent joined the team in Indianapolis on Friday and was on the bench in street clothes during the game.
“I really don’t want to get into it too much,” James said of Vincent’s return. “Don’t put too much pressure on him. When he’s ready to go, it’ll be a bonus for our team, but he’s been out for quite a while. So as soon as he is ready, we will welcome him with open arms as our brother, as a teammate and we have been waiting for him. …He has to take his time.
After the Nets game, the Lakers finish their road trip with a back-to-back set in Toronto and Washington. The short-term challenge for the Lakers, who have already lost to the Nets and played two close games against the Wizards and Raptors, is to make sure they don’t overlook those teams now that the two toughest games in the trip (to Milwaukee and Indiana) are behind them and the team is playing better in general.
The Lakers’ margin for error is gone. They cannot suffer another setback on this trip. Frankly, they can’t suffer through the rest of the season if they want to achieve their goal of advancing to Game 7-8 and earning a playoff spot.
“We have to come in with the mindset of a must-win,” Davis said of the Brooklyn game.
James then delivered an important message to his teammates: the Lakers cannot view any of their upcoming opponents as lottery teams. — or they will potentially suffer the consequences.
“That’s not the thinking,” James said. “That can’t be the case – saying we’re playing sub-.500 teams because it’ll burn you every time. We have to play our game. We understood that Brooklyn beat us last time when we played them in Los Angeles, so we are looking forward to this challenge. … We have to be ready for this game on Sunday.
(Photo by Aaron Nesmith and LeBron James: Dylan Buell / Getty Images)