The Lakers pulled away from the Pacers Saturday night in Las Vegas to finish the in-season tournament unbeaten and claim the first-ever NBA Cup.
LeBron James was named tournament MVP after posting 24 points, 11 rebounds and four assists as L.A. secured a 123-109 victory in the title game. Anthony Davis was the night’s biggest star with 41 points, 20 rebounds and five assists, while Austin Reaves contributed 28 points.
James was the MVP choice of 14 of the 20 writers who voted (Twitter link from NBA Communications). Davis got five votes, and one went to Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton.
At the post-game press conference, James said the Lakers showed growth as a team throughout the tournament (video link from Khobi Price of The Orange County Register).
“I feel like guys have felt a lot more comfortable in their roles,” he said. “We’ve had a pretty good understanding of rotations, who we’re going to be playing with, what guys want to do out on the floor. Like AD said, getting (Jarred Vanderbilt) back, getting Rui (Hachimura) back has definitely helped our size. Getting Cam (Reddish) back has helped us out a lot.”
Apart from two games with the Suns, the Lakers weren’t really tested as they posted a 7-0 record in tournament play. Assigned to West Group A, they began with a three-point win at Phoenix on November 10, then followed with comfortable victories over Memphis, Portland and Utah.
Knockout play began Tuesday with another three-point victory over the Suns, followed by a 44-point blowout of the Pelicans in Thursday’s semifinals.
Indiana suffered its first loss of the tournament after advancing out of East Group A, then upsetting the Celtics and Bucks in knockout games.
“We just got outplayed tonight from the start of the game to the end of the game,” Haliburton said (Twitter link from Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star). They just outplayed us.”
something something how will this impact LeBron’s legacy something something.
AD had 41 and 20 and LeBron was named MVP? I was at work and couldn’t watch, was it just and MVP for the title game or the entire tourney?
The entire tourney
AD was dominant.
MVP of tournament …… Bron deserves it.
Considering DeM DeR is from LA. I wonder if LaVine is just smoke screen for Lakers. Either one could make them legit.
No one cares. This means nothing.
Seems you care enough to open the article and comment…
You better go get a colonoscopy.
Lakers won the bubble tittle and now this. Lol
You mean the Y.A. Tittle?
I’ll raise the lakers in season tournament and bubble title an say my clippers haven’t lost on Christmas or New Year’s Day in over 2 decades
AD got robbed . This tournament really was not special to be honest
It was for the whole tournament, which included the AD disappearing act games.
Love how the video quality was so bad on the terrible court that they switched to side shot for the whole game almost so you wouldnt have distortion of the picture around every player
Because of all the complaints I’m sure they’ll switch to something different with the tournament courts next year.
I gave up watching the painted courts.
Can life go on now and we can stop watching Silver make up garbage to crown L.A. as champions?
MJ never won an in-season tournament, nor did he win the in-season tournament MVP, ipso facto LBJ is the true goat.
lol a small worthless cup? That is your argument . In every sport a cup is not worth it a league title is worth more.
I am pretty sure it was sarcasm.
This is probably more noteworthy than MJ being 6-0 in NBA Finals. This is literally the first title game since the NBA Finals this past summer, so it’s the most important title game remaining in 2023.
If you didn’t make money on this you’re blind asf
this “tournament” is a joke
Genuine question. Did this tournament help raise viewership for the NBA? Because if it didn’t, then what is the point of the tournament?
link to cnn.com
“For the IST’s “Group Play” stage, there was an average of 1.5 million viewers, a 26% increase in games watched across ESPN and TNT compared to November games from last season.
Local television saw a 20% rise in viewership and watch time on League Pass was up 25%, both compared to November dates from last year.
The NBA App, along with the league’s social media channels, had its best November to date, with the digital accounts seeing 3.9 billion video views.
TNT’s broadcast of the quarterfinal matchup between the Phoenix Suns and the Lakers saw an increase of 89% compared to last season’s window, averaging 1.97 million views.
Additionally, more people are physically going to the games. The league’s November attendance average marked the highest amount ever recorded for the month, at 18,206 people.”
Thank you for all of the info! I appreciate it and the insight it gave to the decision for the tournament.
I think it helped a bit for those that don’t typically tune in. I do think the overall is like college basketball, I don’t tune into college until March Madness.
with the NBA most don’t tune in until Christmas or All Star which is when the NFL is done. They were smart to schedule the tourney games on non football days. They know people would tune into an NFL game over this.
The in season tournament for me is like a copy of the euro cup Fiba basketball doesn’t make any sense for NBA.
How did James when MVP when Davis and Reeves both had better stats ??? Probably a going away gift for the old man …
Reaves did not have better stats in the 7 games.
AD you could argue because the rebounds, but Bron had more points 7asst and rebs a game and shot 60% from 3.
MVP was for all the tourney games not the finals.
Since most of you here. Don’t understand what season gms are. The only GAME that didn’t count towards season RECORDS. Was The Final gm. It’s why they got paid.
So this tournament all of you are choking on. Came down to ONE game in Vegas.
You know how ridiculous you sound on a basketball forum. One FnGm …..
Yeah, what a great run it was. Defeating the Suns without Booker… then the mighty Grizzlies, Blazers and Jazz… then the Suns again with some referee help… and then two middle-of-the-pack teams in New Orleans and Indiana. It was everything the league could have hoped for though. Thousands and thousands of new articles and posts now everywhere to read about the greatness of the Lakers and LeBron, the clicks are flying, the cash is flowing in… could you imagine what would have happened if a team like Brooklyn or Sacramento had won? That’s right, absolutely nothing. The league would have had a hard time selling it to people as this great generational success story. But hey, fortunately, the Lakers won, and everything is all right in the world.
Jordan never won an in-season tournament!
LeBron’s not 1,763-0 in camp one-on-one matchups against 40+ year olds who spend 20 grand for a weekend.