Aggressive Anthony Davis gives Lakers winning boost

Forward Anthony Davis dunks during the second half of the Lakers’ win over the Thunder on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

Anthony Davis grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a putback for his first points of the game Friday night for the Lakers. His next hoop against Oklahoma City was a 10-foot jumper. Then he scored on a dunk and his next basket came after an offensive rebound that he turned into another dunk.

Davis was feasting against the smaller Thunder early, putting in work in the box, letting them know this was how it was going to be all night long.

He had 15 points in the first quarter, his six-for-seven shooting a sign of how determined Davis was to help the Lakers reach .500 for the first time this season with a 116-111 victory. He had five rebounds in the first quarter, the two offensive boards showing how aggressive he was going to be in helping the Lakers move into eighth place in the competitive Western Conference.

“They didn’t really have no rim protection so I wanted to get a lot of stuff at the rim,” Davis said after producing 37 points and 15 rebounds. “I knew they were pretty small so I wanted to get a lot of offensive rebounds and just crash the glass. Every game is different. Maybe against bigger guys — [Joel] Embiid, [Nikola] Jokic, Steven Adams — it might be a jump-shot game. But just reading each game, knowing the personnel and then attacking from each point that gives me an advantage.”

Davis was at his best when the Lakers needed him to be the best player on the Cyrpto.com Arena court late in the fourth quarter.

He came over as the help defender and stripped the ball away from a driving Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with the Lakers leading by five points late in the game.

Then Davis collected one of his four offensive rebounds, drawing a foul. He made just one of two free throws, but it gave the Lakers a 114-109 cushion with 25.4 seconds left.

Davis had put his stamp on the game, having that “next-play mentality” Lakers coach Darvin Ham wanted to see.

“A [Anthony Davis] represented all of that today. Just demanding the ball, playing…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/next-play-mentality-aggressive-anthony-152206710.html?src=rss

Author : LA Times

Publish date : 2023-03-25 15:22:06

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