INDIANAPOLIS — Austin Reaves dribbled around a LeBron James ball screen at the top of the arc to initiate a switch to get Indiana Pacers All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton on James on the left wing.

Reaves passed to James, who took a dribble and quickly shoveled the ball back to Reaves, who briefly hesitated instead of shooting — he was open after Aaron Nesmith inexplicably rotated away from him — and threw the ball back toward James. Haliburton, sensing the pass, jumped in front of James and slapped the ball loose, leading to a Pascal Siakam spinning layup the other way.

Los Angeles had just cut the deficit to seven points, the lowest it had been after the 7-minute, 29-second mark of the third quarter. But that sequence — which led to a Lakers timeout and Reaves frustratingly crumpling and throwing a towel near the bench — sparked a 15-3 run to decide the game as the Pacers went on to defeat the Lakers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse 109-90 on Friday. The Lakers dropped to 41-33 and are 2-1 on the six-game road trip. They remain in the ninth spot in the West.

“Offensively, we didn’t have it going,” James said. “Just tonight, we didn’t have it.”

Indeed, it was “one of those nights” for the Lakers. After scoring a season-high 150 points against the Pacers in Los Angeles last weekend, the Lakers were held to a season-low 90 points in a lackluster effort — a 60-point swing.

The 90-point output marked the first time the Lakers scored under 100 points since Jan. 3. They shot 40.7 percent overall, their fourth-lowest mark of the season. That included shooting just 16.7 percent on 3s (5 of 30), their second-lowest mark of the season. Add in their 16 turnovers — compared to just eight for the Pacers — and the Lakers were too tired, inefficient and careless to make this game competitive, particularly in the second half.

“I thought we were running in the mud a little bit,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “Third game, four nights. You have a double OT game in Milwaukee. Played against a physical Memphis squad. You come here and it’s like the Indy 500 as fast as they play. It’s a combination of a lot of different factors.”

Entering the game, the Lakers had won five straight games and were positioning themselves toward potentially jumping the Phoenix Suns to get into the No. 7-8 Play-In game. The Suns (43-31) lost on Friday to the Oklahoma City Thunder, keeping them two games ahead of the Lakers in the standings. But the Lakers didn’t gain any ground on them, either, in what Anthony Davis dubbed another “wasted opportunity.”

“Teams can play well and beat us,” Davis said. “I think it’s the way we lost tonight that’s a wasted opportunity. We don’t shoot the ball well; you can’t control that. But we didn’t play well defensively. Turned the ball over. Wasn’t getting back in transition. …

“We’ve been playing great basketball and these guys could’ve shot the ball extremely well and you tip your hats off to them. But we didn’t play our style of basketball on either end of the floor and that’s the tough part.”

Indiana never relinquished the lead after a competitive first nine minutes. In a much slower and lower-scoring game than the previous two matchups — the Lakers’ 123-109 inaugural In-Season Tournament victory in December and their 150-145 win last Sunday — the Pacers swarmed the Lakers and deployed a more aggressive and forceful style of defense.

The Lakers, who were playing their third game in four nights, frequently played against the shot clock, lacking the verve they’ve had on offense over the past couple of months. They were hesitant and passive and too often let the Pacers dictate the terms of engagement. They didn’t get back in transition. Their 16 turnovers led to 16 points for the Pacers. Their half-court defense had too many breakdowns.

“It’s just careless,” James said of the team’s turnovers. “You got to be able to focus and play through it and understand it’s three in four nights, but it’s no excuse. No excuse for uncharacteristic and unforced turnovers. Some of them you’re trying to make a play to a teammate or whatever and it gets batted down or it’s an attack turnover, you can be OK with those but some of the unforced ones, you’re not. You can never be OK with that.”

Reaves took ownership of his mistakes.

“We just got to be better,” Reaves said. “I got to be better. I had five turnovers. That’s uncalled for. Everybody goes through back-to-backs, quick turnarounds. So just got to be better as a team. I got to be better individually.”

James (16 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists) and Reaves (16 points, 13 rebounds and six assists) both had five turnovers and were uncharacteristically subpar in their decision-making during key stretches. D’Angelo Russell scored just six points on 3-of-14 shooting. Rui Hachimura had 14 points but grabbed zero rebounds after securing 24 boards over the past two games (his only two double-digit rebounding games of the season).

Davis returned after missing Wednesday’s game in Memphis due to left knee hyperextension. He had 24 points and 15 rebounds, which lowered his season-long averages against the Pacers this season. He entered the contest averaging 38.5 points and 18 rebounds per game against Indiana this season.

Ham noticed Davis’ knee impact him.

“You could tell he was running a little gingerly,” Ham said. “It got better in the second half as the game wore on. His body got a lot warmer. But my hat’s off to him. The kid’s a trooper. Wanted to be there for his team and he was. And he gave all he could give. That’s why he is who he is. He cares.”

Davis admitted to soreness but said this isn’t an injury that’ll keep him out of future games.

“Nothing serious,” Davis said. “That’s why I played tonight. I felt like I could play through it. Nothing that I plan to miss any more games for or have to be on a minutes restriction or anything like that.”

The Lakers’ next stop on their road trip is Sunday in Brooklyn. Gabe Vincent is expected to return after missing the past 46 games (and 69 games overall this season) according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. Vincent joined the team in Indianapolis on Friday and was on the bench in street clothes during the game.

“I really don’t want to even get into it too much,” James said of Vincent’s return. “Don’t put too much pressure on him. When he’s ready to go, it will be a bonus for our team, but he’s been out for quite a while. So, whenever he’s ready, we’ll welcome him back with open arms as a brother of ours, as a teammate of ours and we’ve been waiting on him. … He needs to take his time.”

Following the Nets game, the Lakers wrap up their road trip with a back-to-back set in Toronto and Washington. The short-term challenge for the Lakers, who already lost to the Nets and played two close games with the Wizards and Raptors, is ensuring they don’t overlook those teams now that the two hardest games of the trip (at Milwaukee and Indiana) are behind them and the team is playing better in general.

The Lakers’ margin for error is gone. They can’t suffer another setback on this trip. Frankly, they can’t suffer one rest of the season if they want to achieve their goal of climbing into the No. 7-8 game and earning a playoff spot.

“We have to come in with the mindset of a must-win,” Davis said of the Brooklyn game.

James conveyed an important message to his teammates afterward: The Lakers can’t view any of their upcoming opponents as lottery teams — or they’ll potentially suffer the consequences.

“That right there is not the thinking,” James said. “That can’t be the thing — saying we’re playing against sub-.500 teams because that will get you burnt every time. We got to play our game. We got to understand that Brooklyn beat us last time when we played them in L.A., so we look forward to that challenge. … We got to be ready for that game on Sunday.”

(Photo of Aaron Nesmith and LeBron James: Dylan Buell / Getty Images)