As Anthony Davis sits with sprained ankle, Lakers' 7-game winning streak snapped by Pacers
INDIANAPOLIS — A win over the Boston Celtics, an elite team near the top of their conference, set the table for the Indiana Pacers. How to top it? They notched their biggest victory of the season Tuesday night by knocking off the Los Angeles Lakers, the top team in the NBA.
"It means a lot to beat the best team, record-wise, in the league," coach Nate McMillan said. "They've been hot. We had to play good basketball to beat them. Our defense made some adjustments and we started to get stops and establish ourselves."
Former Pacers coach Frank Vogel had been 0-7 against Indiana while with the Orlando Magic. That streak extended as the Pacers won 105-102 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, ending the Lakers' seven-game win streak.
The Lakers didn't have Anthony Davis (ankle) and Kyle Kuzma (ankle), but LeBron James was still going full-steam.
The Pacers still don't have Victor Oladipo. They just got back a rotation player in Edmond Sumner who didn't appear.
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LeBron James came out on fire in the first half, making highlight-reel assists as Los Angeles led by 10.
He was held to seven points in the second half. He missed all five of his 3-point attempts. He missed two free throws down the stretch -- in addition to two by Dwight Howard -- that allowed the Pacers to close strong.
"This is a signature win as far as opponents we've played," said Myles Turner, who combined with Domantas Sabonis to switch onto James on defense to get stops late. "We don't have anything to prove to anybody but ourselves. We know we're a good team with the potential to be a great team and we're still working on ourselves."
The discipline the Pacers (19-9) showed down the stretch was lacking in previous games, such as sloppy finishes in two losses to the Detroit Pistons, last month in losing to the Charlotte Hornets and even a closer-than-expected win vs. the New York Knicks two weeks ago.
Malcolm Brogdon didn't panic. He didn't let anyone else panic, either.
"We followed coach (Nate) McMillan's lead," said the point guard, who scored seven points after his team fell behind 100-95 in the final three minutes. "He's a calm coach and keeps his composure. So we were able to do the same."
Standouts: Sabonis (26 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists) and Myles Turner (16 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks) played well offensively as well as could be expected. T.J. Warren, Jeremy Lamb and Doug McDermott (combined 22 points on 9-for-22 shooting) were schemed out by the Lakers. Malcolm Brogdon (14 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds) did his damage running the mid pick-and-roll, splitting defenders and getting hockey assists that led to corner 3s. T.J. McConnell (10 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals) kickstarted the charge when he came out in the first quarter to energize a lackluster offense.
Xs and Os: The Pacers had no answer for James (20 points, 9 assists, 9 rebounds) early on the middle or high pick-and-roll. They were bringing up their big to stop his momentum to the rim, but when he got the ball out of his hands, he lobbed over the top to JaVale McGee (10 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks) and Dwight Howard (season-high 20 points on 10-of-10 from the field, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks) for dunks. The weak-side help wasn't there as the Pacers were more concerned with taking away the corner 3s with that defender, ceding 2s for 3s and hoping their size could make the passes errant. That's why 36 of the Lakers' 52 first-half points came in the paint.
The Pacers flipped this in the second half by pulling Howard from the rim on handoffs and ball screens, cutting behind him and getting to the rim. The Lakers were late getting from under screens and failing to rear-view pursue the shooter. Warren and Lamb opened the third quarter with six quick points to get Indiana in the lead that lasted into the fourth. The 3-point line opened, too.
What does this victory mean on top of the win over the Celtics?
>> It proves the early-season loss on the road to the Houston Rockets -- without Turner, Lamb, Edmond Sumner and losing Brogdon to a first-quarter back injury -- was a good indication of the Pacers' quality. They came back from a 10-point deficit in the third and took the lead with 8 minutes left in the fourth.
>> It proves a loss the next night to the Milwaukee Bucks -- minus Lamb, Sumner, Brogdon and McConnell -- was just as good of an indicator. The Pacers had to call up a G-Leaguer, Naz Mitrou-Long, and play him 15 minutes because of the backcourt depletion. They couldn't take the lead like they did in Houston and ran out of gas after keeping the deficit to less than 10 entering the fourth.
The wins against Atlanta (twice), Washington, Brooklyn (twice), Oklahoma City (twice), Chicago, Orlando (twice), Memphis (twice) and New York always mattered. Quality of effort and execution can be seen against lesser opponents as well as losses.
Without those games, the Pacers wouldn't be 19-9 and now considered a serious team in the East.
And the Lakers wouldn't have fallen to 24-4.