The Pacers hung on and beat the Anthony Davis-less Lakers on Tuesday night, winning 105-102. It’s the first time the Lakers have lost away from Staples Center this year, and it made me ask: Are the Pacers doing something that other teams can replicate when it comes to stopping L.A.?
The answer is yes and no. The big asterisk, as was mentioned in the first sentence of this here article, was that Anthony Davis wasn’t playing in the game. Without Davis, the Lakers go from borderline un-guardable to a solid, strong, yet beatable NBA team.
You saw this in the way the Pacers played James in the last few possessions of the game on Tuesday night. Malcolm Brogdon was tasked with on-ball guard duties for the most part, and did admirably, fighting over screens and sticking with James for the most part.
Brogdon had a security blanket in Myles Turner, however, and Turner was able to stay close to the basket.
Why? Without Davis in there to space the floor from the 5-position, the Lakers went with Dwight Howard down the stretch. Howard plays closer to the basket than Davis does, which allowed Turner to pull double duty — he could stick close enough to Howard to deny the entry pass into the post, but could also get out to contest if James went for a floater.
The rest of the Pacers defenders hung with the shooters, so when James came running off a pick, he was forced to either try and get a floater over the outstretched hands of Turner, or force the ball into Howard’s hands.
It worked for the Lakers, at times, especially getting the ball to Howard — Dwight finished with 20 points on 10-10 shooting, mostly easy dunks. For the Pacers, though, that was fine — they gummed up James’ game (he finished with 20 points on 8-20 shooting, and 4 for 8 from the line) and tried to deny him facilitating to shooters. Without Davis, the Pacers’ bigs were able to clog up the paint and force James to facilitate instead of getting to the rack and finishing.
It was good and smart, but I’m not sure how that’ll work with Davis on the court. With him on the floor during crunch time, he’ll take six steps back and force the opposing big to make a decision. If the big goes with Davis, James has an open path to the basket. If he leaves Davis open, well, Davis doesn’t miss much.
The Pacers showed how to beat LeBron James and the Lakers. LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Lakers? Not so much.
