It is frequently stated that the NBA is a make-or-miss league, and unfortunately for the Lakers, they witnessed the wrong side of that in their 109-90 loss to the Pacers on Friday night. The setback stops the Lakers five-game winning streak and takes them to two and one halfway through their six-game road trip.

This game took on a whole different tone than the battle these teams played earlier in the week, with both teams bringing more tenacity defensively and neither side exhibiting as much explosiveness in general on attack. This was especially true for the Lakers, whose 90 points was a season-low output and was prompted by a 40.7% night shooting from the field, including a five-for-30 performance from behind the arc (16.7%).

Part of this is likely attributed to the Lakers playing their third game in four nights while still experiencing some of the aftereffects of their double overtime game to open the roadie. Many of their missed jumpers were short, and being on a team that races out and runs as much as Indy only impacted any possible weariness further.

But the Pacers also deserve a large amount of credit in this one, using a more aggressive, switching approach on defense while showing terrific effort in aiding and then recovering to get out to shooters and contest shots and disrupt the flow of the Lakers offense.

Despite a great defensive night by Indy and some troubles from the outside by the Lakers as a team, they did have some good outings individually.

Anthony Davis came back from missing the team’s game in Memphis to lead the Lakers with 24 points and 15 rebounds while hitting nine of 17 from the field. Davis was clearly still suffering some with the knee ailment that had him miss time, but he settled into the game beautifully and had a strong impact on both sides of the ball.

LeBron James and Austin Reaves both played with good spirit and brought up good production with double-doubles. LeBron scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, making six of his 12 shots from the field while aiming to attack the rim out of the post and via dribble drives. LeBron also handed out eight assists, truly looking for his teammates and trying to set them up for nice shots.

Austin, meanwhile, scored 16 points and showed excellent activity on the backboards with 13 rebounds while also handing out six assists. Austin never did find his range from behind the arc (one of seven from deep), but he was outstanding at attacking the paint and finding angles to the rim, where he scored well with a variety of finishes with both hands.

Despite these attempts, though, the Pacers simply had too many answers on both sides of the ball while proving fresher and quicker for most of the game. Indy had six different players score in double figures, led by Pascal Siakam’s 22 points and Tyrese Haliburton’s 21 points. Both did more than score, too, with Siakam adding 11 rebounds and six assists, while Haliburton contributed eight rebounds and eight assists.

And when combining this kind of offensive productivity from the Pacers with their defensive effort, which included forcing 16 Lakers turnovers, and the Lakers struggle to ever create a rhythm offensively, despite some open looks, Indy just had more than the Lakers could handle in this one.

So now the Lakers will try to recover and come out ready to bounce back when they go to Brooklyn to face the Nets on Sunday.