...
By Alex Kirschenbaum
Contributing Entertainment Writer
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
The Los Angeles Lakers survived a spirited run from the visiting Indiana Pacers last night to win at home, barely, 150-145. But as Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star details, two of the Pacers' key contributors had serious questions about the validity of the victory. We'll get into that in a bit.
As Dopirak notes, Indiana took 107 field goals to LA's 89, and connected on nine more (59-50). The Pacers also had a higher-volume night from long range, finishing at 18-of-36s made trey (50%) to the Lakers' 12-of-25 (48%). Indiana enjoyed a major bench-scoring edge, too, 49-28. The free throw line, however, is essentially how Los Angeles won, as head coach Rick Carlisle and All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton both noted postgame. LA went 38-of-43 from the charity stripe while being called for a scant 14 fouls. Indiana shot 9-of-19 and was whistled for 31 fouls.
"There were certain things that were impossible to overcome," Carlisle said. "The 27-free-throw differential is one. The 17-foul differential is the other. And I'll leave it at that."
Read More on NBA
"I think they shot 43 free throws today," Haliburton said. "The first game [the In-Season Tournament championship game] it was 35. You tell me what you're supposed to do when a team shoots that many free throws. I don't really know. ... The game, the way it's been officiated the last couple of weeks, you can get away with a lot more. That's how it started. That's not how the game continued on. We gotta play through whatever's thrown at us."
...
"When you shoot that many free throws, they control the pace," Pacers All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton said. "We like to play up and down like we did in the first quarter. When the game gets stopped a lot and there's a lot of free throws being shot, that's really been the story of both games we've played. They dictate the pace because there are so many free throws being shot. We just have to do a better job of not fouling and playing through that."
Pacers power forward Pascal Siakam and Lakers center Anthony Davis led the way for their respective squads with 36 points apiece. Three other Lakers starters finished with 25 or more points per: small forward LeBron James (26 points on 8-of-19 shooting, plus 10 assists and five rebounds), shooting guard Austin Reaves (25 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field, eight assists, five rebounds), and upgraded starting point guard Spencer Dinwiddie, in for D'Angelo Russell (26 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the floor, plus five dimes and two rebounds). The Pacers had eight double digit scorers to the Lakers' five (reserve LA forward Taurean Prince had 14 on 6-of-8 shooting in just 19:19).
Los Angeles improved to a 39-32 record with the win, but very much remains the Western Conference's ninth seed (2.5 games behind the seventh- and eighth-seeded Sacramento Kings and Dallas Mavericks, respectively). Indiana fell to 40-32, and remains the East's sixth seed for now. But the Pacers are just 0.5 games ahead of the seventh-seeded Miami Heat and eighth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers (39-32). The Sixers have struggled mightily without their best player, reigning MVP center Joel Embiid, and the Heat have underperformed a bit of late, but Miami seems to have awoken recently. One wonders if the Heat wake up enough to lap Indiana.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines