Anthony Davis scored a game-high 41 points, grabbed a game-high 20 rebounds, had a game-high four blocked shots, and passed for five assists as the L.A. Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers 123-109 to win the NBA Cup Championship Game. The NBA Cup Championship Game statistics do not officially count as regular season statistics or as playoff statistics, but it is still worth mentioning that Davis is just the third player in Lakers history to post a 40-20-5 game: Elgin Baylor accomplished this 13 times, and Wilt Chamberlain did it twice. Davis shot 16-24 from the field, and he controlled the paint at both ends of the court. He shot 9-13 from the free throw line and he did not attempt a single three pointer. LeBron James added 24 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, and two steals. He only attempted one three pointer, and the only blemish on his boxscore numbers was that he committed a game-high six turnovers. James won the NBA Cup MVP award, which was based on play throughout the entire tournament and not just in the Championship Game. Austin Reaves scored 28 points off of the bench on 9-15 field goal shooting and 10-12 field goal shooting. The Lakers scored 86 points in the paint, more than any team has scored in the paint in any game this season, and they shot 43-65 (.662) in the paint.
The Lakers shot 2-13 (.154) from three point range and won by double digits; one of the most amusing NBA fairy tales is the one about how a team "needs range shooting to win in the modern NBA." The funniest thing about that fairy tale is that no amount of evidence will convince the "stat gurus" that they are wrong, a point that we will revisit in April and May when the teams that jack up three pointers are eliminated one by one from the playoffs. The Pacers shot 10-41 (.244) from three point range. If you're wondering what it would look like if one of the better teams from the 1980s played a typical team from today's NBA, this game provided a glimpse of a team utilizing its size and high percentage two point shooting to overwhelm a smaller team that relies on three point shooting.
I have emphasized for years how much size matters in the NBA, and the Lakers' performance in this game is yet another example proving that point to be true. Size matters not only on offense but also on defense. The bigger, stronger Lakers physically overwhelmed the Pacers, holding them to 35-95 (.368) field goal shooting while outrebounding them 55-32. Tyrese Haliburton had a solid game (20 points, 11 assists, three turnovers), but he did not control the action the way that he did up to this point in the Pacers' NBA Cup games; the Lakers trapped him with size, forcing him to shoot or pass over much bigger defenders. Bennedict Mathurin scored 20 points off of the bench. Myles Turner is averaging 17.1 ppg, 8.0 rpg, and 2.1 bpg while shooting .506 from the field this season, but the Lakers held him to 10 points on 3-11 field goal shooting, seven rebounds, and no blocked shots. No Pacer other than Turner had more than five rebounds.
In the NBA Cup Semifinals, the Pacers defeated the Milwaukee Bucks and the Lakers destroyed the New Orleans Pelicans, setting up a Pacers-Lakers matchup in the first NBA Cup Championship. Both teams entered the Championship Game undefeated in NBA Cup play. In my NBA Cup preview, I predicted that the Lakers would win the Championship Game because they "will pound the paint with James and Davis" (although I expected the Lakers to face the Milwaukee Bucks, not the Indiana Pacers).
The Lakers relentlessly attacked the paint from the beginning of the game. In the first quarter, the Lakers scored 26 points in the paint on 13-20 (.650) field goal shooting, and they led 34-29 heading into the second quarter. Davis dominated the first quarter with 13 points on 6-9 field goal shooting and eight rebounds. The Lakers trapped Tyrese Haliburton and their size bothered him, limiting him to three points on 1-3 field goal shooting, three assists, and two turnovers after he did not commit a single turnover in the previous two NBA Cup games.
In the second quarter, Reaves erupted for 15 points on 5-6 field goal shooting. The Lakers led 65-60 at halftime, outscoring the Pacers in the paint 52-22 while shooting 26-37 (.703) in the paint. The Lakers shot 0-6 from three point range in the first half. Yes, it is possible to outscore the NBA's highest scoring team in a half without making a single three pointer! When the Lakers won the 2020 NBA championship, they dominated the paint: they ranked first in field goal percentage, eighth in defensive field goal percentage, and ninth in rebounding, but they ranked just 23rd in three point field goals attempted and 21st in three point field goal percentage. The notion that LeBron James needs "lasers" (great outside shooters) to win championships is demonstrably false.
During the post-halftime interview, Lakers Coach Darvin Ham succinctly summarized the Lakers' game plan: "Dominate the paint. Play inside out."
The Pacers stayed close during the third quarter, only losing that stanza 25-22, but the Lakers won the fourth quarter 33-27 while shooting 12-20 (.600) from the field. In the fourth quarter, the Lakers shot 10-15 in the paint and 1-2 from three point range.
The Pacers are doing the best that they can with a young, undersized team. They are not a championship contender, but they are a dangerous team, and they have demonstrated that they will not back down from anyone; unlike the Pelicans, they did not quit against the Lakers despite being overpowered.
The Lakers won the NBA Cup by playing the right way eight times in November and December; in order to win the real NBA championship, they will have to play the right way 16 times spread out over four playoff series, and in at least two of those series they will face a team that is better than the Pacers. Will James, Davis, and company be physically healthy and mentally focused enough to win the NBA title? During the James-Davis era, the Lakers have a 26-17 record in the playoffs, with one 2020 "bubble" title and one season during which they missed the playoffs (2022). Take away the neutral court playoff games played in the Orlando "bubble" in 2020, and the James-Davis Lakers have a 10-12 playoff record.
During the NBA Cup, we saw the Lakers' ceiling, but during the past three years we have seen their floor, so it will be interesting to see which Lakers squad shows up for the 2024 playoffs.