LeBron, Quinn Cook Shine in Loss to Indiana

Final Score: LAL 111 IND 116 [L] (51-18)

In a parallel universe, this would be the final score in the 2000 NBA Finals with Reggie Miller's Pacers winning against the Kobe-Shaq Lakers in 6. All jokes aside, the Lakers drop another game in the bubble. At least they made this a game, that's all I can say.

LeBron James and Quinn Cook showed out for this one. 'Bron racked up 31 points and Cook came off the bench and scored 21 points. 3-point shooting has been the Achilles heel for the Lakers since entering the bubble, shooting under 30%. This game, it was better but not much and we got Cook to thank for that as he shot 5-9 from deep.

I didn't get to see much of the game. By the time I tuned in, the Lakers built a 59-54 lead at half. Looking at the highlights though, it was tight throughout. In some spurts, the Pacers made a run for it, especially at the end of Q1. But, the Lakers stormed right back. It was tight throughout the 2nd half. But, Indiana pulled it out at the end. If Fantasy Basketball was still around, T.J. Warren would've won folks a lot of championships. He's averaging 35 PPG in this bubble.

The biggest headline in this game was that Anthony Davis only tallied 8 points with 3-14 shooting. Stan Van Gundy noted that AD struggled with Indy's double team this game. Not too mention, he tried to play "hero ball" in the final seconds of the 4th. I'm hoping this is the case that AD threw this game away just to avoid injury. 

The Lakers will go as far into the playoffs as LBJ and AD can take them. Literally, they are the offense. Teams will take note of this come playoff time on how to slow down Anthony Davis. Like I said, we can hope he's not showing much of his cards at this point. 

Overall, effort was good this game, but there's still a lot of work to be done. Remember when Frank Vogel coached the Pacers to the #1 seed in the East in 2014? They struggled in the playoffs against teams they should've beaten with ease before succumbing to Miami in 6 in the Conference Finals. We hope that this is not the case because the playoff road is looking tough for this team. They got two more seeding games to iron things out with Denver and Sacramento up next. I'll see you guys later.