The Los Angeles Lakers earned their third win in a row on Sunday by getting past the Indiana Pacers, 150-145. They led by as many as 19 points in the second half, but withstood a furious Indiana rally in the final minutes to improve to 39-32.
The bright spot was the fact Los Angeles scored 150 points, its highest scoring output since the 1986-87 season, even though D’Angelo Russell sat out due to illness. The downside was that, well, it gave up 145 points.
Anthony Davis was downright dominant with 36 points and 16 rebounds. When he was asked about his team scoring 150 points, he turned the attention to the defensive end of the floor.
“We just need to continue to play our style of basketball and focus on us and take it one game at a time.” Anthony Davis (36pts, 16reb) on the standings. pic.twitter.com/iU5MCxwj65
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) March 25, 2024
“(We were) just terrible defensively,” Davis said. “They hit some shots toward the end, some deep 3s. We can do what we want offensively, as you can see tonight, but we have to be able to defend, especially when we’re up on a team like that. Don’t try to give them no life.
“But at this point in this season, a win is a win and we’ll take it but we have to learn from it as well.”
Guard Austin Reaves, who stepped up in Russell’s absence, agreed.
Via Lakers Nation:
“You never want to give up 145,” Reaves said. “They got hot late, I think with under a minute left they probably hit three or four 3s, maybe more.
“But we just got to be better on the ball, in rotations and really just collectively guard as a team. When we do that, you got AD back there making things tough in the paint, we’re a good defensive team or are defensive-minded.”
While the Lakers have been playing at an elite level offensively over the past two months, they have ranked near the bottom of the NBA in multiple defensive categories. They will need to step things up on that end of the court in order to reach the playoffs and do some real damage there.