While LeBron James recovers from an ankle injury, the Los Angeles Lakers depend on Anthony Davis to play tremendous two-way basketball to keep them in the playoff hunt. Thankfully, AD is turning on Beast Mode just in time.
The Lakers (31-34) are 6-3 since the trade deadline acquisitions came aboard and 4-2 since the All-Star break. They’re 4-2 without LeBron since Feb. 11 and 2-2 without LeBron and D’Angelo Russell.
Over the last six games, AD is averaging 29.4 points on 54.9% shooting, 11.8 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks — and that includes a 3-of-5, 25-minute night on Feb. 23. in which the Lakers’ supporting cast carried the load against the short-handed Golden State Warriors.
Davis powered through Rudy Gobert for 38 points on Friday, but his teammates didn’t provide enough offensive support. On Sunday, he devoured the defending champions to the tune of 39 points while also grabbing eight rebounds and swatting a pair of shots. He shot 14-of-25 and, most encouragingly, 10-of-13 from the free-throw line. AD muscled the Warriors’ bigs into foul trouble early and often and led Los Angeles to a 20-point first-quarter advantage.
He capped off his afternoon by scoring seven straight points in crunch time. Fittingly, the last four came on a physical post-attack on Draymond Green and then a couple of game-icing free throws.
Davis’ ongoing heater recalls the 13-game MVP-caliber run (32.4 points, 14.0 rebounds, 1.2 steals, 2.3 blocks, 64.1% FG) he enjoyed before he hurt his foot on Dec. 16. The Lakers went 8-5 during that span and 3-2 sans LeBron.
“First and foremost, he’s playing pain-free,” Darvin Ham said Sunday when asked if AD is back to his pre-injury level of play. “He’s in a really great rhythm. We’ve got some different pieces around him with some guys he can really play off of at a high level. He’s smiling. He’s fighting through a lot. Getting hits to the face, to the arm, scratches, everything. He’s battling through it all. I just feel like I see it – he’s just in a great, great place right now.”
Ham specifically shouted out AD’s “unwillingness to settle” — which Ham said was his overall directive to the squad, citing Golden State’s perimeter defense but lack of rim protection. Ham credited the star center for setting the tone by “staying in attack mode.”
Dennis Schroder echoed the sentiments.
“AD is AD. One of one … When he’s in attack mode, it’s always going to be tough to stop him. I mean, Draymond, of course, he’s one of the best defenders in the league, but AD is a top-five player in the world.”
Davis blended power with finesse, posting six assists (his second-highest total of 2022-23). As Ham referenced, the skill sets of the Lakers’ revamped supporting cast fit more cleanly around AD, which was on full display vs. Golden State.
Jarred Vanderbilt (10 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists) takes the pressure off Davis to go all-out on the glass. Malik Beasley (12 points) opens up space. A few holdovers — Troy Brown Jr. (14 points, 4-of-7 from 3), Dennis Schroder (11 points, 6 assists), and Austin Reaves (16 points, 3-of-5 from 3, 8 assists) — continue to excel on both ends.
“It opens up the floor where guys on the defensive end of the floor can’t help, and now you get that one-on-one matchup like I had with Dray at the end,” AD said about the Lakers’ improved spacing. “So kinda trying to make the right plays, and knowing don’t want to put so much pressure on Dennis to make the right plays or Austin. We’re missing two of our elite playmakers in Bron and DLo, and if the ball’s gonna be in my hands a lot, make the reads and find our guys.”
“I’ve been doing it my whole career, even in New Orleans, doing whatever the team needs,” Davis added about his current all-around groove. “Obviously with Bron out, the team’s gonna rely on me more to make plays for myself, for others. Other guys are stepping up, playing well, making shots, defending. So it’s a team effort.”
AD always plays at an All-Star level, but the All-NBA, hyper-assertive, game-wrecking iteration of him is what the Lakers and their fans have pined to see for prolonged stretches since the bubble. The “great place” he currently occupies rings especially welcome in the wake of his pre-deadline scoring slump that coincided with bizarre, languid behavior. As LeBron rides LeScooter for another three weeks or so, Los Angeles needs AD to sustain this degree of dominance.
After all, as Davis said during the All-Star break: Every game left is essentially a “must-win.”
Source: https://clutchpoints.com
