The Lakers won the inaugural In-Season Tournament on Saturday, and they did so by essentially big brother-ing the precocious Pacers into submission.
Here are the key numbers from Los Angeles’s 123–109 win: The Lakers attempted only 13 three pointers (and made two of them), out-rebounded Indiana 55–32, and outscored them in the paint 86–44. For fans in rocking chairs yearning for the old days of inside-the-arc basketball, Saturday night must have been a delight, as the Lakers won the NBA’s newfangled tournament the old fashioned way.
The game’s best performer was a Shaq-like Anthony Davis, who recorded 41 points, 20 rebounds and five blocks in 41 minutes of work. Anybody wondering how seriously stars would take the IST only needed to watch Davis in the championship game—snarling after big defensive plays and emphatically exclaiming “I’m him!” after a big fourth-quarter bucket.
The Pacers’ success in the tournament was predicated on speeding teams up, limiting their opponents’ opportunities to shoot threes, all while shooting early and often themselves. Unfortunately for the Pacers, some of those strategies played into Los Angeles’s hands in the final.
Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports
The Lakers have not been a great shooting team for most of the James and Davis era. A defense that doesn’t love to put two on the ball often and funnels players into the lane is perfect for what Los Angeles does best. James and Davis were able to make use of their size advantage to put the Pacers in a bind. The Lakers took a whopping 65 shots in the paint, including 45 within the restricted area alone. (For reference, the Magic lead the league in restricted area field goal attempts this season with 33 a night.) Davis and James repeatedly attacked the smaller Pacers, quickly putting Myles Turner in foul trouble, further tilting the game in their favor.
Meanwhile, Indiana didn’t have a good shooting night from outside, and Los Angeles happily gobbled up all the misses to give a headstart to its own offense. Tyrese Haliburton also couldn’t find much space, scoring his fewest points (20) since Nov. 19, while turning the ball over three times, a rarity for him.
Fouls also played a role in this game. The refs called a tight one, ultimately whistling a total of 58 fouls in the game. Whether or not that was an exciting brand of basketball or not likely didn’t matter to Los Angeles, because all those stoppages help keep the Pacers’ speedy offense out of rhythm. The game was still ultimately played closer to Indiana’s ideal pace, but the choppy nature of the action benefitted the Lakers.
Davis was the real revelation Saturday. When he plays as well as he did, the Lakers are practically impossible to beat. Few players have the two-way ceiling of AD, who can wall off the paint by himself while efficiently dropping 40 if you don’t have a plan for him in the paint. Los Angeles hasn’t been great offensively through the first quarter-ish of this season. The Lakers do often have a size advantage, though. And when they are able to lean into that physical style of basketball, Saturday was an indication of how effective that can be in a high-stakes setting.
