LOS ANGELES_Donning a Lakers ball cap on Wednesday night, Coach Luke Walton sat in the first row behind the UCLA bench at Pauley Pavilion.
Like most of the crowd assembled to watch No. 2 UCLA play Washington, Walton was hoping to see the two top point guards in college basketball duel. Washington's Markelle Fultz sat out because of a sore knee, so UCLA's Lonzo Ball got the stage all to himself in front of the Lakers coach and other members of the organization.
This wasn't a business trip.
"I've been hearing UCLA games are a fun environment," Walton said. "Went to check it out. They're playing some good basketball there."
Walton attended the game _ won by UCLA, 98-66 _ with Lakers assistant coach Jesse Mermuys. Elsewhere in the arena were Lakers point guard D'Angelo Russell, who sat courtside beneath one basket, and rookie Brandon Ingram.
As a fan of basketball, Walton watches plenty and tries to force himself not to watch with a critical eye.
"If I have a free night to watch basketball, I'd rather just try my best to sit there and enjoy watching the game," Walton said. "We have a whole scouting department that's been watching them all year. We have European scouts, all that stuff. When the time comes, we'll take the appropriate amount of time to sit down and watch it from more of a scout's view than from when I casually have the game on if I'm at dinner."
He succeeds about half the time. Often, Walton will absent-mindedly try to rewind games he's watching on hotel televisions, to get another look at the play a team ran.
He's seen Ball and UCLA play a few times this year. The Lakers had the night off in Milwaukee when UCLA beat Oregon. But watching UCLA is not always a pleasant experience for Walton. The Bruins beat Arizona, Walton's alma mater, in Tucson on Saturday.
"They stopped us with a zone so I wasn't very happy about that," Walton said. "We got them in UCLA so we'll see what happens in the Pac-12 (Conference) tournament."
