LOS ANGELES_Brandon Ingram is 19, and he still needs to add muscle to his wiry 6-foot-9, 190-pound frame, but the rookie forward and second overall pick in last year's draft is beginning to show he belongs in what Los Angeles Lakers Coach Luke Walton commonly calls "a grown man's league."
After averaging 7.3 points and shooting 34.7 percent from the field in his first 38 games, Ingram has bumped his average to 12.7 points in his last nine games, shooting 47.5 percent (38 for 80) from the field and 48.3 percent (14 for 29) from three-point range.
"He's further ahead than I thought he'd be right now," Walton said Saturday after practice.
Ingram scored 15 points and made three of six three-point attempts in Friday night's 108-96 win over Indiana, but his biggest influence came on defense, where he held Pacers star Paul George to four points in the third quarter, a period in which the Lakers took control of the game. George, who finished with 21, dropped 30 points on the Lakers on Nov. 1.
"Watching the tape when I got home last night he was even better than I thought when I left the gym," Walton said of Ingram. "He made a lot of really winning-style plays for us. I'm talking about the way he was on the ground for loose balls, the way he was getting deflections ... . I think that was his best game he's played since being here."
Ingram has impressed the Lakers with his work ethic, often visiting the team's practice facility for late-night shooting sessions, and his efforts are paying off.
"Something has clicked for Brandon," Walton said. "He wants to be great, and there's been a change of his mind-set. I don't know if somebody has got to him or he's figured out stuff on his own, but it's really impressive for someone his age living in L.A., with some new money, to that quickly turn basketball into the priority he has and attack practice every day the way he is."
Walton has challenged Ingram all season _ assigning him to the explosive George on Friday night was his latest test _ and as Ingram meets those challenges, he accelerates his learning curve.
"It takes young players a long time to figure out the physicality of the league, to figure out the speed of the game," Walton said. "When I first got to the NBA, I remember watching players run up and down the court and thinking these were the fastest, strongest people I've ever seen in my life.
"That's what it's like coming out as a college kid. The game looks like it's slowing down for him. To me, it normally takes rookies and young kids much longer than half a season for that to happen."
