By CNN
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The Los Angeles Lakers produced their highest scoring night in 37 years on Monday, outlasting the Indiana Pacers 150-145 in a clash between two potent offenses.
The Lakers, led by the superstar duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, had four players score at least 25 points in what was the team’s highest scoring game of the season.
Davis led the way with 36 points and 16 rebounds while shooting an efficient 15-of-21 from the field. James and Spencer Dinwiddie each had 26 points while Austin Reaves chipped in with 25, including six free throws inside the final minute to help ice the game.
Per the NBA, these four players became the first quartet of teammates to each score 25+ points in over three years, and the first Lakers teammates to achieve the feat since 1971.
Indiana held a six-point lead after the first quarter before a scoring explosion from LA saw the team put up 86 points across the second and third quarters alone.
“Offensively, we were very sharp,” James said postgame. “We had some turnovers in the first quarter and first half but cleaned it up in the second half.”
The Pacers, meanwhile, had all five starters – and eight players in total – hit double figures after a late fourth-quarter rally saw the team fall just short. Indiana has boasted one of the best offenses in the league throughout the season and currently holds the second-best offensive rating in the league.
“We played (the Pacers) in the (In-Season Tournament) championship, and we know how high-powered an offense they are,” said James. “They’re never going to stop playing no matter how far they get down or how far they’re up, so it’s a good win for us.”
Despite the free-scoring nature of the game, Davis lamented his side’s defensive performance.
“We allowed them to score 145, so … it was terrible defensively,” Davis said after the game.
“They hit some shots toward the end, but we can do what we want offensively – as you could see tonight – but we’ve got to defend, especially when we’ve got a team (in trouble) like that. We don’t need to give them life, but at this point in the season, a win is a win. We’ll take it, but we’ve got to learn from it as well.”
The Lakers were almost made to pay for their porous defense, as the Pacers came back from 19 points down to cut the lead to only three when All-Star Tyrese Haliburton drilled two triples inside the final 30 seconds of the game.
The late flurry turned out to be too little, too late for Indiana, but head coach Rick Carlisle was pleased with his squad’s effort.
“Sometimes, when you have difficult challenges, it’s easy to drop your head and just say, ‘Hey, it’s not our night,’ but our guys don’t do that,” he said. “Our second unit battled in the second half. That last five-minute stretch, the first unit came back in there, and they were defiant about hanging in the game. At a certain point, you’ve got to play absolutely perfectly, and that was going to be very, very difficult.”
Carlisle was also unimpressed with the disparity in foul calls between the two sides.
“There were just certain things that were impossible to overcome. A 27 free throw differential is one, and a 17-foul differential is the other,” he said.
Mid-season trade acquisition Pascal Siakam led the Pacers in scoring with 36 points to go along with 12 rebounds, while Myles Turner and Andrew Nembhard contributed 20 and 15 points respectively as the Pacers fell to 40-32 – currently good enough for sixth in the Eastern Conference.
The Purple and Gold, meanwhile, win their third in a row to move to 39-32 and occupy the No. 9 seed in the West and a spot in the postseason Play-In Tournament. The Lakers now embark on a six-game road-trip and will be looking to improve their seeding and secure an automatic playoff berth as the season winds down.
