Los Angeles Lakers: Luke Walton wants Brandon Ingram to play angry
Los Angeles Lakers head coach, Luke Walton, would like to see Brandon Ingram play angry as he believes it improves his performance.
The Los Angeles Lakers are hoping second-year small forward takes a big leap this season. After struggling throughout most of his rookie season, Ingram has looked better thus far in his sophomore campaign.
Ingram has shown a more polished offensive game. Last season, he scored in double-figures 36 times, breaking the 20-point plateau only twice. In six games this season, he already has scored in double-figures four times, breaking the 20-point plateau once already; his season high is 25 points against the Phoenix Suns.
While the shooting percentage and scoring is up, Ingram still has some improvements to make; consistency is near the top of that list as Ingram has alternated bad and good shooting games.
Finding consistency is something every young player has to go through. After dominating at the high school and college level, it is an adjustment to have to work hard for your baskets at the NBA level. Ingram experienced that last season and is seeing it again this season.
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There are different things that players will do to help get themselves into a zone to perform. One thing that Lakers head coach Luke Walton believes to help Ingram is him playing angry.
Walton discussed it with Elliott Teaford of the Orange County Register, saying he believes Ingram plays better when he is playing angry. It is something he would like to see from Ingram more often.
"“We can yell at him, pull him out of the game, make him (angry) at us,” Walton said of organically igniting the passion in Ingram’s game. “There’s ways to manipulate the situation to make players angry, so if he doesn’t find that awareness, we’ll do it for him until he does.”"
Sometimes, playing angry will get a player in trouble. If they are playing with too much emotion it could throw them off their game. Ingram, a mild-mannered person by nature, could probably use a spark such as playing with some anger to perform at a different level.
It was something that actually happened against the Washington Wizards. Ingram had a slow first half, but woke up in the second half, scoring 15 of his 19 points to help the Lakers force overtime. The Lakers would win the game in overtime, overcoming a 10-point fourth quarter deficit.
That would not have happened if it were not for Ingram’s play. What actually sparked Ingram in that game was some jawing with Wizards forward, Kelly Oubre Jr. He was a different player after that, and the Lakers benefited.
"“There’s just another gear I can go into,” Ingram acknowledged. “Sometimes I don’t even notice it. I think (Wednesday) night, we were just so into that basketball game, we were going to do whatever we could do to win that game. That definitely showed in all our young players.“Actually, I don’t think I’m thinking at all, just in another zone. I block everything out.”"
From the sounds of it, Ingram zones in once he gets agitated. He plays with a little more edge and it results in some great production.
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It was something that worked against the Wizards and should be something the Lakers want to see happen more often. Whether they have to do it themselves, as Walton suggested, or an opponent gets under Ingram’s skin, him playing angry seems to have positive results.