In a game that was crucial for both teams’ hopes of making the playoffs, the Indiana Pacers defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 109-90 on Friday night. Pascal Siakam ended with 22 points and 11 rebounds, while Tyrese Haliburton contributed 21 points, eight assists, and eight rebounds.
With their most recent victory, Rick Carlisle achieved career win number 938, tying Red Auerbach for the 12th most in NBA history. Indiana has won four out of six games to hold the No. 6 spot in the Eastern Conference.
All-Stars with injuries The Lakers attempted to enhance their postseason standing from the No. 9 seed in the Western Conference by starting and playing like regular All-Stars LeBron James (left ankle) and Anthony Davis (left knee).
James ended with 16 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists, while Davis finished with 24 points and 15 rebounds. On a night when the Lakers made only 5 of 29 3-pointers and committed 16 turnovers, five of which were by James, Austin Reaves contributed 16 points and 13 rebounds.
The early speed and high stakes made for an interesting, if sometimes sloppy, competition.
However, Indiana turned the tables on an old rival, falling to the Lakers 150-145 last Sunday in Los Angeles and 123-109 in the NBA’s first In-Season Tournament championship.
For virtually all of the last 39 minutes, the Pacers were ahead. They secured their first winning season since 2020–21 with a 17–3 run in the fourth quarter after taking an 86–70 lead late in the third and fending off all of the Lakers’ attacks early in the fourth.
The Lakers, who knew the stakes were high, were clearly frustrated as they missed far too many shots and communicated poorly.
After a thoughtless mistake that resulted in a Pacers basket, Austin Reaves balled up a towel and shot it off the bench. Following a mistake that resulted in an easy Pacers layup, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and D’Angelo Russell were perplexed.
About his errors, Reaves said, “Bonehead plays.”
As the final buzzer rang, the Lakers lost 109-90, ending their five-game winning run. The club had to deal with a performance that may make it harder for them to advance from the play-in round to the postseason.
The Phoenix Suns, who the Lakers have the greatest chance of catching, lost in Oklahoma City on Friday, but the Suns did not let that stop them. However, the Lakers also failed to make progress.
“Teams who perform well may defeat us. I believe that our loss today was a squandered opportunity,” Davis said. “You can’t control it; we don’t shoot the ball well. But defensively, we weren’t very good. overturned the ball. wasn’t recovering throughout the shift. I believe that the squandered chance was the reason we lost.
We’ve been playing fantastic basketball, and you should give these players a lot of credit for their excellent shooting. The difficult issue was that we didn’t play our brand of basketball on either end of the court. That’s when the lost chance enters the picture.
The Lakers’ 90 points was a season low and the first time they had fallen short of 100 since January 3.
James said, “Offensively, we didn’t have it going.” “It’s clear that we shot terribly from the three. Over the last two months, we have been shooting the ball really effectively from beyond the field. We just didn’t have it tonight.