The Lakers gave Tyrese Haliburton the star treatment.
Los Angeles defended him as well as anyone has this season, blitzing Haliburton with length and trying to cut off the head of the snake of the Pacers’ top-ranked offense. The Lakers rotated sharply behind the double and contested everything. To his credit, Haliburton didn’t force anything and kept making the right basketball plays, finding his teammates.
Haliburton didn’t get enough help. LeBron James got more than enough help from Anthony Davis.
Davis was the best player on the floor and finished 41 points and 20 rebounds, leading the Lakers who pulled away in the final five minutes to win 123-109.
WHAT A GAME FROM AD 🗣️
— NBA (@NBA) December 10, 2023
41 PTS \ 20 REB \ 5 AST \ 4 BLK@Lakers win the first-ever NBA In-Season Tournament! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/gpKTxPX1rw
The Lakers are the winners of the inaugural In-Season Tournament and hoisted the NBA Cup.
LeBron James was motivated all tournament, finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds, and was named In-Season Tournament MVP. (Insert your own “Jordan never won an IST MVP” joke here.)
The first-ever NBA In-Season Tournament MVP 🏆
— NBA (@NBA) December 10, 2023
Peep LeBron's best plays from the tournament 📹 pic.twitter.com/F1ZIlmbcfd
The key takeaway from the In-Season Tournament for the Lakers should be their defense coming together and slowing down elite offenses in the Suns and Pacers. If Los Angeles has any chance to change the dynamic from last season’s Western Conference Finals against Denver, they need this defense — and this Davis.
Styles make fights, and the styles of this game played right to the Lakers’ strengths. The Pacers wanted a game with flow and pace and an oddly tightly called game by the referees sucked the flow out of both teams’ games all night.
Where the Lakers really thrived was against the Pacers’ defensive system.
Indiana’s defensive strategy all season long has been to chase teams off the 3-point line (allowing 26.2 3-point attempts a game, fewest in the league) but not protect the rim with the same intensity, allowing opponents 62.5 points in the paint per game, the most in the league. (Zach Lowe highlighted this on his podcast.) With their pace and 3-point shooting, the Pacers have proven they can win playing this math game.
The bully-ball Lakers were just fine with the Pacers’ system. Los Angeles finished the game with 86 Points in the paint (plus 27 from the free throw line, they shot just 2-of-13 from 3 and scored 10 points on jumpers outside the paint).
Davis, in particular, thrived against that strategy. For example, in the first quarter he had 13 points in the paint, and that combined with the Pacers not hitting their 3s (3-of-10) the Lakers led after one 34-29.
That pattern continued continued all night. Haliburton moved the ball to open players, the Pacers made the right passes, then they just missed shots — 10-of-41 from 3 (24.4%) and 36.8% shooting as a team all night. The Lakers’ length bothered them, but guys just missed shots.
Haliburton finished with 20 points and 11 assists, both team highs. Bennedict Mathurin and his sometimes wild shot selection brought needed energy in this game and he also had 20, but Buddy Hield finished with eight points on 11 shots and Myles Turner had 10 points on 11 shots and fouled out.
Austin Reaves added 28 for the Lakers.
The Pacers came up short on the biggest stage, but they proved they are a threat in the East getting to the Finals by beating the Celtics and Bucks. While Los Angeles laid out a blueprint to beat Indiana, not every team can execute it like the Lakers, and the Pacers will be better for having faced it.
But this was LeBron and the Lakers night. They looked like the contender and should be stepping forward with great confidence.
