Miserable Lakers loss mars star’s landmark

LEBRON James joined a select group of NBA players to score 32,000 career points but nevertheless endured the most lopsided defeat of his career as the Indiana Pacers routed the Los Angeles Lakers 136-94.

Bojan Bogdanovic scored 24 points for the Pacers, who tied a franchise record with 19 three-pointers.

James, playing his second game since suffering a groin injury in a Christmas Day win over Golden State, led the Lakers with 18 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.

On a night of few Lakers highlights, coach Luke Walton was pleased to see a driving dunk from the four-time NBA Most Valuable Player.

“It was good to see LeBron take off and go dunk one and kind of trust his body,” Walton said, though otherwise there was little positive to find in a game that saw 19 Lakers turnovers lead to 33 Pacers points.

“Bottom line, we have to be better,” said Walton, who said he didn’t know if some of the Lakers players had been adversely affected by trade talk swirling around the team.

Reports this week indicated the Lakers had offered as many as six players in a bid to land New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony Davis by tonight’s transfer deadline.

Fans in Indianapolis rubbed in the rumours, yelling “LeBron’s going to trade you” at Lakers guard Brandon Ingram as he went to the free-throw line.

“That’s just fans being fans,” James said. “If you let that bother you, you’re in the wrong sport.”

Later, the Los Angeles Times reported that Lakers had informed the New Orleans Pel- icans they were pulling out of trade talks for Davis.

Team president of basketball operations Magic Johnson told New Orleans general manager Dell Demps that the Lakers had made their best offer, which included a willingness to trade Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, Kentavious CaldwellPope and Ivica Zubac to the Pelicans.

In addition, they had agreed to part with two first-round draft picks and to take Solomon Hill and his $17.5 million contract along with Davis.