Final
Los Angeles Lakers 123-109 Indiana Pacers
The Los Angeles Lakers beat Indiana Pacers 123-109 in Sunday’s final of the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament(NBA Cup) in Las Vegas on Sunday morning.
Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 41 points and 20 rebounds while LeBron James added 24 points and 11 rebounds enough to be named tournament’s MVP.
Tyrese Haliburton led the Pacers with 20 points and 11 assists. Bennedict Mathurin also scored 20 for Indiana.
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The loss was the Pacers’ first in the league’s new event after sweeping group play and beating Boston Celtics in the quarterfinals and Milwaukee Bucks in the last four.
Los Angeles led by five after the first quarter and by five at halftime behind 22 points from Austin Reaves on 7 of 9 shooting from the field and 8 of 9 from the free throw line.
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The Lakers threatened to blow the game open in the third quarter, going ahead by as many as 11 points.
The Pacers stayed in the game with a run to start the fourth quarter. Obi Toppin made a three-pointer, then Timothy John McConnell stole the inbounds pass, finding Mathurin for a lay-up before he scored himself to cut the deficit to three.
McConnell had a chance to make it a two-point game, but Davis blocked his lay-up, leading to a Cam Reddish dunk on the other end midway through the fourth.
D’Angelo Russell fed Davis for a dunk to extend the lead to double-digits with under five minutes to play, then James dished to Davis for a lay-up to put Lakers up 16 with three minutes to go, forcing an Indiana timeout which changed little to nothing as the Lakers held on to win the game, sending the Lakers-heavy crowd into celebrations.
Despite winning the NBA Cup, the Lakers did not gain a victory in the NBA standings. Saturday's game, which will ultimately be the 83rd of the season for the Lakers and Pacers, did not count as part of the league's regular-season standings and none of the stats from the game will count toward regular-season totals, either.