“It was as good as we could’ve played defensively,” Luke Walton declared after I asked him about the team’s extraordinary first quarter effort after the Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers, 104-96, on Thursday night.
That probably isn’t hyperbole. The Lakers had more blocked shots (seven) in the first eight minutes of the game than the six points that the Pacers scored, and a defensive rating of 51.7 throughout a dominant quarter that concluded with a commanding 38-15 lead.
Let’s take a closer look at how they did it:
JaVale McGee was the catalyst, blocking or altering eight (!