Los Angeles Lakers celebrate Craig Sager with a win against the Indiana Pacers

The Los Angeles Lakers host the Indiana Pacers for a Thursday night showdown and walk away with their 12th win of the season.

On a night where the NBA honored legendary TNT sideline reporter Craig Sager, the Los Angeles Lakers handled their business, defeating the Indiana Pacers for their 12th win of the season.

From the start, the Lakers came out attacking offensively. Brandon Ingram opened the game with a dunk on a pass from LeBron James off of a cut to the basket.

From the jump, the Lakers were hitting on all cylinders defensively.

They started the game on a 13-0 run, knocking down their first six shot attempts. Defensively, they were in lockdown mode, coming up with seven blocks and three steals in the first quarter.

LeBron started off strong with 14 points in the first quarter on 6-for-8 shooting. The Lakers found themselves up 23 points after a first quarter score of 38-15 while shooting 69 percent from the field.

In the second quarter, the Lakers continued to play great defensively with Josh Hart showing active hands. He got into passing lanes and was able to come up with multiple thefts on the defensive end.

Michael Beasley made an appearance in the second quarter as well. He provided some much-needed baskets in the quarter, including a reverse layup to keep the Lakers lead at 20.

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However, the Pacers started to get their groove back and the Lakers continued to have problems with turnovers and free throw shooting. The Pacers managed to cut the lead down to 12 with 5:00 left in the 2nd quarter.

The Lakers started to get too aggressive defensively with the Pacers, resulting in too many fouls. The Pacers shot14-for-19 from the free throw line in the first half. That helped the Pacers cut the lead to six heading into the 2nd half.

The Lakers started the 3rd quarter with Brandon Ingram bringing the ball up the court as he was looking to be aggressive early.

However, in the first couple of minutes, the Lakers started to stray away from the defense that propelled them to a big lead early in the game.

There was too much standing around, with movement only coming when the shot clock became an issue.

After back-to-back Pacer threes by Bojan Bogdanovic and Tyreke Evans, the Pacers gained their first lead of the game as they led 69-66 with 4:00 left in the 3rd quarter.

Despite the Lakers continued struggles from the 3-point line, as well as the free throw line, the Lakers gathered their composure. After a 3-point basket by Josh Hart followed by a layup, the Lakers took control once more as they led 83-75 going into the 4th quarter.

The final quarter started with JaVale McGee securing his 4th block of the game, but free throw shooting continued to hurt the Lakers. They ultimately ended up shooting 56.5 percent from the charity stripe.

The Pacers moved the ball and were getting good shots. Even after the Lakers managed to knock down a couple of threes at the hands of LeBron, the Pacers refused to go away.

But, the Lakers buckled down and ignited a 9-0 run spearheaded by a 3-pointer by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

After a couple of step-back jump shots by LeBron James, who finished with 38 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, the Lakers put away the Pacers for their 12th win of the season.

Things got a little antsy in this game as it seemed like the Lakers were poised to give up yet another big lead, which they did at one point. Even though they won, it’s still frustrating to see the Lakers give up a big lead like that.

It’s equally frustrating to see the Lakers struggle from the free throw line on a consistent basis. They can never be consistent with their defensive effort, but they sure can be consistent when it comes to poor free throw shooting.

All frustrations aside, this was a good win for the Lakers with the usual story of LeBron playing great and the young core playing inconsistent once again.

This was a good win for the Lakers, but also another learning experience for them as well.