LOS ANGELES_Occasionally something changes inside Brandon Ingram, and often he doesn't even know it's happening.
He enters a new frame of mind. An aggressive, confident one.
"I don't think I'm thinking at all," Ingram said. "Just another zone. Just doing everything I can do, trust my teammates, try to get a stop on defense. (Have a) mentality where I block everything out and worry about everything in between those lines."
It happened Wednesday night during the Los Angeles Lakers' 102-99 overtime win against the Washington Wizards. Ingram's late-game play helped the Lakers reach overtime. He finished with a team-high 19 points on eight-for-16 shooting. Ingram also had 10 rebounds, three assists, a steal, four turnovers and a blocked shot.
Lakers coach Luke Walton noticed a change in Ingram after a minor scuffle with Wizards forward Kelly Oubre Jr. He said it caused Ingram to elevate what had been a mediocre game.
Ingram chuckled when he heard Walton's theory.
"I think that could be part of it," Ingram said. " ... Just basketball. Just got a little physical. Couple words said back and forth."
Since Ingram has been in Los Angeles, his coaches have noticed that when he gets angry he plays better. It brings out an aggressiveness that isn't always there.
Ingram's demeanor has been the subject of much scrutiny since the Lakers drafted him second overall in 2016.
"Sometimes as a player I don't even notice it sometimes," Ingram said. "I may look lethargic at some times and I don't even notice it."
There, the coaching staff can help.
"We just continue to bring it up, make it something that we point out when he is not playing (aggressively), point it out when he is playing like that," Walton said. "For him to have the awareness and hopefully recognize it himself where he doesn't need us to. Besides that we can yell at him, pull him out of the game, make him (mad) at us, there's ways to manipulate situations to make players angry. If he doesn't find that awareness, we'll make him hate us until he does."
That aggressive mentality could help Ingram turn into something else the Lakers have sought _ a closer.
"I hope to be," Ingram said, when asked if he could be the Lakers' closer.
Said Walton: "He definitely wants it, 100 percent he wants it. some people you feel like they say they want it but in their eyes you can tell they are saying it because they are supposed to say it. Brandon, he truly wants those moments."
