The Los Angeles Lakers put their best four quarters of basketball together Tuesday night against the Detroit Pistons, coming away with a 113-93 victory at home.
Lakers head coach Luke Walton was particularly impressed with the play of Brandon Ingram, who impacted the game in many ways, as he scored 13 points on 6-of-12 shooting to go along with five rebounds, six assists, four steals, and a block.
After the game, Ingram talked about what made the team so successful Tuesday night on both ends of the floor. “I think we were locked in,” Ingram said. “We were landing easy buckets, transition passes and we moved the ball on offense. We didn’t care who shot the ball as long as it went into the hole. We got back on defense and we did everything we could.”
Ingram also commented on what the team has been working on defensively that has led to the improvements this season.
“Our gameplan was to come in defensively and try to block in our guy individually. We’ve been working a lot on individual defense. Playing defense without fouling was our main system.”
The Lakers ranked dead last in defensive efficiency the last two seasons and 29th the season before that, but so far this season it has been like night and day as they rank ninth in the league so far this year.
The additions of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Brook Lopez and Andrew Bogut have definitely helped on the defensive end, but also young players like Ingram, Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson, among others, have improved drastically on that end of the floor.
Los Angeles will look to build off the win over the Pistons on Thursday night when they travel to take on the Portland Trail Blazers.
WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN THE DISCUSSION? CHECK OUT THE NEW LAKERSNATION FORUM CLUB
