Brandon Ingram put on a show when the Los Angeles Lakers played host to the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night at the Staples Center. The second-year forward scored a career-high 32 points while going head-to-head against the superstar player he's been compared most to early in his career, Kevin Durant.

Although the Lakers came up short in overtime against the defending NBA champions, Ingram showed he might be turning into the team's go-to guy. The Duke product has shown flashes of potential to be a star in the NBA, but consistency has been a problem until this season.

Following practice on Thursday, head coach Luke Walton talked about what Ingram needs to do to become that player that the team's brass has been hopes he evolves into during his career in the NBA.

“It comes with one, earning the respect of your teammates by the way you prepare, by the way you work,” Walton said. “Brandon has that. He 100 percent has that. And then it's about going in and finding a way, which I think is the hardest thing for young players, finding a way to be consistently good every single night.

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“It's hard. You just have to consistently do it, and if you keep doing it and doing it and doing it, you kind of become that guy. But for us, it's not just the way he scored the ball last night because we don't want him coming in with the mindset of, ‘alright, let me go get 30 again tonight.' He's got to continue to play the right way. Play within the system we're trying to play. The style of play we want to use, and if he can do that consistently, he can become that guy.”

After the impressive performance against Durant and the Warriors, Ingram is now the second-leading scorer on the Lakers behind rookie Kyle Kuzma. The 20-year-old is putting up 15.7 points per game while shooting 46.6 percent from the floor.

Along with becoming a dependable scorer for Los Angeles, the former second overall pick has started to earn the reputation for being a player that can get to the basket at will and finish through contact. Ingram has struggled with his shooting and ability to finish at the rim during his short career, but he seems to be turning things around quickly in his sophomore campaign while putting the league on notice at the same time.