National Basketball Association

Is NBA In-Season Tournament hangover real? Lakers and Pacers are finding out

Published Dec. 30, 2023 3:38 p.m. ET

The NBA's inaugural In-Season Tournament was considered an unmitigated success because of all the heightened competition it produced, culminating with the Los Angeles Lakers beating the Indiana Pacers for the title in a rare battle of contrasting styles.

It's the after-effect that has raised a few eyebrows around the league. As in how the two finalists have stumbled since spending nearly a week in Las Vegas and adding an extra game to their 82-game regular-season schedules.

The question put to scouts, GMs and executives: Is the drop-off coincidence or correlation?

The Lakers and Pacers, at least, seem to believe it's the latter. "They both were openly complaining about how beat up they were right after," one Eastern Conference scout said.

"Correlation for sure," a Western Conference scout said. "They ramped it up to the highest level and then had to take a deep breath."

While other NBA personnel surveyed by FOX Sports acknowledged that the level of competition was higher than normal, they pointed to other elements of the tournament that could have had a lingering effect.

"Extra travel, extra game, along with games played harder than usual at midseason," an Eastern Conference assistant GM said. "None of that probably helped. I didn't really want us to go to Vegas."

That's where the knockout rounds were held for the eight teams that came out of the league-wide pool play beginning Dec. 4 and ending with the championship game on Dec. 9. Both the Lakers and Pacers lost six of their next eight games. That's a long time to be around the temptations of Sin City.

"As they say, Las Vegas is undefeated," a second Eastern Conference scout said. "In an NBA game where usually a few possessions, one way or the other, can determine a win or a loss, those factors on the margins — extra games, extra travel, extra distractions — can have an effect."

Several executives suggested the Lakers may have also paid a price for popping champagne and dousing each other with it in the locker room, something usually reserved for an end-of-the-season celebration, when there are no more games to be played. Returning to the grind of the regular season after an emotional and mental release like that — especially with the opportunities offered in Las Vegas to continue the celebration elsewhere — had to be a challenge.

"I'm sure that was a factor," a Western Conference GM said.

The timing also was not ideal for the Lakers. They played four of their previous five games on the road before heading to Vegas, and then played six of their next seven away from home as well, essentially creating a month-long road swing. Their star nucleus, Anthony Davis and LeBron James, both played heavy minutes; Davis only sat out one game, an upset loss to the San Antonio Spurs, and James only missed two, a win over those same Spurs and a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

"The Lakers played more home games earlier in the season and are now suffering the effects of playing a road-heavy schedule without the benefit of the load management or rest games they would normally have taken," an Eastern Conference executive said.

The Pacers, meanwhile, may have alternately alerted everyone in the league that they should be taken more seriously after knocking off the top two teams in the East — Milwaukee and Boston — to reach the tournament final, and also had their biggest weakness exposed by the Lakers, who bullied them for an 88-46 advantage in paint points. That more than made up for being outscored 30-6 from beyond the arc, in part because the Pacers launched 41 3s to the Lakers' 13.

"Indiana is suffering from being the worst defense in the NBA and teams are catching up to their jump-shooting offense," the Eastern Conference executive said.

That hints at the prevailing view: that the attention and adulation both teams received as a result of reaching the In-Season Tournament final gave an outsized impression of just how good they really are.

"The reality is those teams are not elite regular-season teams," the Western Conference GM said. "Both probably were out-pacing their number of expected wins, so some regression was likely coming."

The biggest question is if teams will take what happened to the Lakers and Pacers as a cautionary tale when approaching future In-Season Tournaments. The general sense is that it will depend on the team; young ones like the Pacers might still find value in having their players experience a playoff-like atmosphere if making the real postseason seems unlikely. But for those with higher goals?

"I do think coaches will try to get players to handle it like an early series and be more like, ‘We've got a bigger prize in mind,'" the Western Conference scout said. "The goal is to be at their best at the end of season. Not in the middle."

Ric Bucher is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. He previously wrote for Bleacher Report, ESPN The Magazine and The Washington Post and has written two books, "Rebound," on NBA forward Brian Grant's battle with young onset Parkinson's, and "Yao: A Life In Two Worlds." He also has a daily podcast, "On The Ball with Ric Bucher." Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.

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