The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a franchise-worst loss on Sunday to the Dallas Mavericks, falling 122-73 in a game that was out of hand by halftime. The loss was the Lakers 13th straight to the Mavericks, and a sixth loss in their last seven games overall.
Additionally, the 73 points was a season-low for the Lakers, whose previous low was 80 on Nov. 27 against the Atlanta Hawks. Effort seemed to be lacking for this young Lakers team, and that’s what caught the eye of first-year head coach Luke Walton after the game.
Walton sent out a big lineup against the Mavericks, starting Ingram at point guard and Luol Deng, who had missed the past two games with a right wrist sprain, at small forward. Although Ingram’s had bright moments in running the offense, Sunday was not his finest effort.
Walton said the rookie the hesitant and off his game, as seen during Walton’s postgame interview on Spectrum SportsNet:
“I thought he was a little out of it. He looked like his reactions were a little off, he wasn’t pushing the ball the same way he had been. I love him being aggressive, but he seemed to be a little indecisive, which hadn’t been the case recently.”
Ingram led the Lakers in minutes played (36) on Sunday, but scored just six points on 2-of-12 shooting, had just one rebound, zero assists and three turnovers.
That was coming off a strong performance in Friday’s win over the Indiana Pacers, which Walton called Ingram’s best game of the season. The rookie scored 15 points to go along with seven rebounds and two assists to help the Lakers snap their five-game losing streak.
With D’Angelo Russell out for a minimum of next 1-2 weeks with a sprained MCL and bone bruise, Ingram figured to once again be pressed into spot-duty. While that may remain the case, Walton said he was first going to review the film with Ingram before determining if he’ll start at point guard on Wednesday against the Portland Trailblazers.