LeBron James spoke to the media after the Los Angeles Lakers‘ 113-100 win over the Sacramento Kings. He immediately lavished Anthony Davis with praise for his outing and told fans and media members alike that his consistently great performances could not be taken for granted and that he should be shown his respect for the way he performed on the night.
“AD is special. Don’t take those performances for granted, don’t say ‘That’s just AD doing AD’. That’s a special talent and a special player. We needed every last one of those 20 boards. And everybody just tried to protect him.”
Davis did have a strong performance last night. He put up 21 points (7-20 FG), 20 rebounds, four assists, three steals, and six blocks on the night, with an impressive 7-9 record from the free-throw line. More than his offensive performance, it was his defensive contributions that helped the Lakers seal a much-needed win and break a four-game losing streak while on the road.
LeBron James was no slouch either, as he delivered 19 points (8-21 FG), six rebounds, seven assists, and one steal. But it was Austin Reaves who put the team on his back offensively last night, as he put up 25 points (7-14 FG), six rebounds, five assists, and two steals while going 3-7 from beyond the arc and 8-9 from the free-throw line.
Davis, James, and Reaves have established themselves as the three best players on the team, and are growing into their leadership roles. As for the rest of the Lakers, while they may have the occasional good game, their big struggles are with consistency. This is one of the many reasons the front office is looking to the trade market to bolster the squad ahead of the February deadline.
Anthony Davis Speaks On Defensive Improvement
Anthony Davis also spoke after the game about the Lakers’ win. When asked about the Lakers’ improved defense on the night, Davis noted that the Lakers players have just adjusted their mentality, making sure that they cover for each other. He did note that the team had been putting in work together during practice, and the results are now manifesting themselves in real games.
“Nothing really schematically. I think we just covered for each other… We’re playing a little harder on defense, we’re talking more. We’re playing desperate, especially on the defensive end. We just show it. We’re here on some practice days to just go over some things that were hurting us on the defensive end.”
“We had time to clean it up and now we’re just translating it to the court during real games. Practice time helps us. Guys have a recovering mentality, helping each other, knowing that mistakes are going to happen but for the most part, we want to be solid within our defense and our schemes and we’ve been doing that lately.”
Davis is undoubtedly the Lakers’ best defender. For the season, he is averaging 27.5 points, 11.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.3 steals and 2.2 blocks per game. Davis has a defensive rating of 109.1, the best defensive rating of any Lakers player.
While tonight’s game was a strong one for the men in purple and gold, it is clear that the team needs some improvement. GM Rob Pelinka must trade for a center soon, as Anthony Davis is playing out of his preferred power forward position, and doing so without anyone to help him out when it comes to rim protection and interior defense.
The Lakers could target a Jazz duo which would solve their big man problems, but they need to act soon. Reports suggest that a deal surrounding D’Angelo Russell could get it done, which you can check out here.
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