The Brow Anthony Davis scored 41 points to help the Los Angeles Lakers to victory against the Indiana Pacers in the NBA’s first in-season tournament final.
Austin Reaves added 28 points, tournament MVP LeBron James had 24 points and 11 rebounds and D’Angelo Russell added 13 points. Davis was 16 of 24 from the field and also had five assists.
Though the stakes weren’t as high as they would be for a playoff, the tournament and the title game had that kind of atmosphere in front of the pro-Lakers crowd.
This game was the only one in the tournament that doesn’t count in the standings, but there was still plenty on the line. In addition to taking home a trophy, Lakers players on standard two-way contracts each made $500,000 and the Pacers received $200,000 apiece. Players on two-way deals take home half those amounts.
LeBron James was named IST MVP for his performance over the entire event. It’s also another trophy for James, who has won four NBA championships, and he made no secret of his desire to add the title to his resume.
Coming into this game, the story was the contrast in styles. The Pacers play the ultimate finesse game. They shoot 3’s, they play fast and they rarely defend. The Lakers are the opposite. They want to play physical basketball and dominate the paint without taking many 3’s. It became clear very quickly that the Lakers would be the team that dictated the terms of engagement. This was a bully-ball game.
The Lakers dominated it. They nearly doubled Indiana’s paint points — 86 to 44. The rebounding margin was almost as big: the Lakers won it 55 to 32. Indiana’s only reliable big man, Myles Turner, fouled out in the fourth quarter after shooting 3-of-11 and failing to earn a single block. Not every opponent is going to be as stylistically defined as the Pacers. Playoff opponents will be able to adjust to the Lakers’ size.
But if anything became clear in this game, it’s that the Lakers are better than any other team in the NBA at winning this, specific style of game. After all, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid both played Indiana in this tournament. Neither dominated inside as thoroughly as Anthony Davis did.
In the Pacers, the Lakers found an equally energized team led by an emerging star in this league. Haliburton became a familiar face during this tournament, but the Lakers limited his damage on Saturday. With Reddish handling most of the defensive duties on Haliburton, he often passed to a teammate rather than try to force the action.
After watching Tyrese Haliburton knock out the Celtics and Bucks with brilliant performances, the Lakers decided that wasn’t going to happen to them. Though Haliburton finished with 20 points and 11 assists on 8-of-14 shooting from the field, he was unable to have his usual impact on the game. The Lakers decided he wasn’t going to beat them, and he did not.
Using an aggressive approach, the Lakers sent multiple long, athletic defenders Haliburton’s way all night long, which forced him to give up the ball often much earlier than he would have preferred. While Haliburton is a more-than-willing passer, he likes to get downhill and draw the defense before either hitting his big man or kicking it out to shooters. Instead, he had to give it up early, which meant other Pacers were turned into decision makers, and that was a win for the Lakers.
The In-Season Tournament gave teams a rather rare opportunity to play playoff-style basketball in the winter. Obviously plenty can change between now and the spring, but it’s always worthwhile to see who a coach trusts in big games. Darvin Ham gave us a glimpse into his thought process there, and the answer, based on our pre-season expectations, is pretty surprising.
LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves were obviously big-game closers. D’Angelo Russell, given his stature and contract, was always likely to land in one of those closing slots as well. But the fifth player in that lineup? That was Cam Reddish, who played 33 big minutes in the tournament final and had a team-best +24 point-differential.
James was also named the most valuable player of the inaugural NBA Cup.
“Records will be broken but one thing that will never be broken is being the first to do something,” said James, 38.
“We’re the first champions of the in-season tournament and nobody can ever top that.
“It’s great to be able to do it with such a historical franchise and even better to do it with a great, great cast of funny, engaged, competitive men over here.”