Luke Walton says the Lakers may try to get Brandon Ingram to shoot more

EL SEGUNDO- One of the more bizarre statistical quirks of the Los Angeles Lakers’ blowout loss at the hands of the Boston Celtics was rookie Brandon Ingram not attempting a single field goal until the fourth quarter.

Ingram’s aggressiveness was somewhat limited by foul trouble, but the rookie didn’t want to use that as an excuse.

“I don’t think I played well at all. I don’t think I was aggressive in the first half,” Ingram said following the loss, and Lakers head coach Luke Walton made it clear at the Lakers’ Saturday practice that he needs to see more aggressiveness from his young forward, even if he’s in foul trouble.

“Obviously we want him taking more [than two shots]” Walton said. “If I see a game happening like that again, I might manipulate it a little bit to get him some more shots.”

Walton allowed that he thought Ingram “did a really good job of not forcing it,” and manipulating the Lakers’ offense to get Ingram more looks might already be something he’s already trying to do.

Ingram is averaging 7.8 shots per game this season, but over the last 10 games Ingram has averaged 8.6 attempts per contest. That’s hardly a significant uptick, but with Luol Deng racking up DNP-CDs down the stretch and the Lakers’ main other option at the three being Corey Brewer, Ingram should get plenty of minutes and chances to fire shots up.

Part of why it’s hard to throw a heavy workload at Ingram is because of his lack of bulk to sustain the extra pounding that would come with more shots, but at the Lakers’ practice Saturday he spent a good portion of the individual session the media was allowed in for working on his turnaround jumper:

It certainly isn’t the first time Ingram has worked on that fadeaway sequence this season, but using it more often in games would allow him to mitigate the pounding he takes while trying to manufacture a few more looks per game. We’ll have to see if it’s something the Lakers look to set up a bit more during the stretch run of their season.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats per NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com. Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.