CLEVELAND _ Near the start of this two-week trip, Jordan Clarkson, D'Angelo Russell and Brandon Ingram got away from all the rest of their distractions and retreated into the purity of the game they love.
In a gym in Sacramento on Monday night, they shot basketballs until early the next morning after losing to the Sacramento Kings _ 3 a.m., Clarkson guessed.
Each player wanted more from himself.
"I think the fact that we weren't hitting shots that we just all felt the need to just get in the gym," Ingram said. "It was good for me because I felt like I had a bad game, it was kind of something I did back home to get my mind right."
The results were apparent on Saturday night in Cleveland, where the Lakers went toe-to-toe with the defending NBA champions. Although they lost, 119-108, the Lakers stayed right with the Cleveland Cavaliers before falling short at the end.
Starting at point guard in place of Russell, Ingram nearly became the youngest player in NBA history to record a triple double. He finished with nine points, nine assists and 10 rebounds.
"That's the best and most confident he's looked all season," Lakers Coach Luke Walton said of Ingram. "When he was playing point today, he was kind of controlling and demanding the offense. Getting people in position. Coming off looking not just to shoot every time. Reading how defenses were playing him. He was great on the glass tonight. He really helped out against a great rebounding team."
Clarkson found a shooting touch he'd been missing, making seven of 12 from the field including four of seven three-point attempts in scoring 20 points.
The loss dropped the Lakers to 11-19, with the Cavaliers improving to 19-6, the best record in the East. But the way the Lakers remained competitive encouraged Walton.
"We are finding out how hard it is to win a single game in this league," he said. "It's hard. It takes a lot of effort and work. That team won a championship. That means they're really good. So for us to come out and give ourselves a chance to win on their home court, be in the game, cut it to four at one point late there in the fourth. That's a good effort for us. That's growth from last game."
Their previous game, a victory Friday night at Philadelphia, snapped an eight-game losing streak. Then they flew to Cleveland for the second game of a back-to-back set.
They were without Russell, who told Walton before the game he needed a rest. Russell is a few games removed from having missed 12 games because of a sore left knee.
While the final margin was 11, the Lakers stayed closer than the score suggested. They got to within three points, 108-105, with just under four minutes to play before the Cavaliers pulled away late in the fourth quarter.
Nick Young made a career-high eight three-pointers, Clarkson added four threes and Luol Deng scored three. Young had a game-high 32 points.
The Cavaliers were led by LeBron James with 26 points and Kevin Love with 27. As a team they shot 51.7 percent.
A second-quarter run threatened to blow the game open, but the young Lakers didn't allow that. After breaking a 15-0 run by the Cavaliers, which had Cleveland leading by as many as nine points, the Lakers stormed back to trail by only three at halftime.
Clarkson banked in a driving layup to cut the Cavaliers' lead to 62-59.
The dagger from Cleveland came courtesy of James. With 2:39 left in the game, Young missed a three-pointer that could have brought the Lakers within two. At the other end of the court, James hit a three causing a six-point swing and an eight-point Cavaliers lead.
This loss, though, offered hope.
"It sucks that we lost but everybody kind of got in a rhythm," Clarkson said. "We were really moving the ball. That's why the shots came easier. We were feeling aggressive and assertive."
