An encouraging opening month for Brandon Ingram turned into a promotion into the opening lineup Wednesday night at Golden State as coach Luke Walton juggled the Lakers’ lineup to compensate for the injury absence of Julius Randle.

Rather than plug Larry Nance into Randle’s spot at power forward with Randle sidelined by a hip pointer, Walton instead moved starting small forward Luol Deng to power forward and gave Ingram his first pro start. The No. 2 pick got to celebrate by defending Kevin Durant.

Ingram began the night fifth among rookies in scoring, third in minutes, first in fourth-quarter minutes, tied for seventh in rebounding, and ninth in shooting and blocks. Walton has also spoken highly of his defense.

Scott Howard-Cooper has covered the NBA since 1988. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.

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