Lakers’ Brandon Ingram already making his mark on defense

After Tuesday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets, Lakers Coach Luke Walton said he thinks Brandon Ingram is almost to the point where he’s a lock-down defender. That’s not a phrase Ingram ever thought would fit him.

“I guess that’s something I didn’t focus on coming through high school and college,” Ingram said. “I’ve seen it’s very important.”

Walton began driving home Ingram’s defensive potential as early as during Ingram’s pre-draft workout with the Lakers. That was really all Ingram needed to start to buy into wanting to improve his defense. Since the Lakers drafted him second overall this summer, he has worked constantly to become the kind of defender Walton envisions.

His wingspan was a big part of what made his potential as a defender so bright. Ingram’s wingspan was measured at 7-feet-3 during a pre-draft workout. He’s learning how to use that to his advantage.

“A lot of this league is about angles,” Walton said. “The block he had in that last game in Brooklyn at the end of the game. He took the body contact, but he wasn’t trying to fight it to where it knocked him off balance. He let the guy make his move, was able to use his wingspan to still be there to block his shot.”

Walton added that the best defenders use their wingspan to force opponents into bad shots. Sometimes players make bad shots, but defenders can live with that.

“Once he fully understands it and fully commits to it, he’ll be great at it,” Walton said. “To play defense anyway at this level at his age is near impossible to me. These are grown men you’re playing against. It normally physically just beats you down. He’s been pretty good with it.”

Tagging along with Pop

Walton has never had the chance to spend much time with Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich, save a brief walk during this year’s coaches meetings in Chicago.

“I just kind of tagged along,” Walton said.

But when the Lakers play the Spurs on Friday, Walton will face a coach for whom he has great admiration. He called the Spurs the most professional team in the NBA.

“He gets his players to play hard and play the right way,” Walton said. “There’s so many breakdowns in the NBA with how long the season is.

“To have the run that they had over there and still continue to do the little things and not get satisfied and slip with the setting of the screens and the backdoor cutting and all those things that are naturally what teams slip on when they’ve had success — his teams don’t. That just means he does a heck of a job coaching them.”

Etc.

Lakers guard Nick Young missed Thursday’s practice with a cold. He is probable for Friday’s game. … With his triple double against the Nets, Julius Randle became the seventh Laker since the 1979-80 season to record multiple triple-doubles. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 3, Vlade Divac and Lamar Odom had four, Pau Gasol had five, Kobe Bryant had 21 and Magic Johnson had 138.

UP NEXT

LAKERS VS. SAN ANTONIO

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Where: Staples Center.

On the air: TV: Spectrum SportsNet, Spectrum Deportes; Radio: 710, 1330.

Records: Lakers 7-5; Spurs 9-3

Record vs. Spurs (2015-16): 0-4.

Update: The Lakers aren’t the only team to have had a superstar whose name was synonymous with the franchise retire this summer. After 19 NBA seasons, all of them with the Spurs, Tim Duncan retired this summer.