Anthony Davis dominated in the Los Angeles Lakers 110-103 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on opening night, giving the Lakers their first season-opening win since 2016.
Despite a rough team shooting night (5-30), the Lakers used strong defensive principles to stay in control of the game for JJ Redick’s debut as a head coach.
Davis put up 36 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, one steal, and three blocks in the win, including a perfect fourth quarter where he scored 11 points without missing a field goal attempt. Fans were swept away by how well their star big man played and showered him with praise.
“Watching Anthony Davis completely break games by himself on both ends is sick. 1st Team All-NBA talent. Also played 2700 minutes last season—another healthy season and hopefully he’ll shut all that Day-to-Davis stuff down and be appreciated for the superstar he is,” said a fan after Davis’ dominant night.
“Anthony Davis will never say it publicly because he is not a d***head like Dray but it absolutely pisses him off that Rudy Gobert is a more decorated player individually than he is. And it should piss him off because he is better at literally everything possible in basketball,” said a fan while remarking on this being a head-to-head matchup between Davis and Rudy Gobert.
The Lakers played well as a unit, with key performances coming in through Rui Hachimura putting up 18 points and five rebounds and LeBron James adding 16 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Austin Reaves had 12 points and nine assists while Jaxson Hayes had 10 points and a block off the bench.
A chunk of the credit for this hard-fought win went to new head coach JJ Redick, with fans buzzing about the potential of the rookie head coach.
“Lakers offense under JJ Redick is a night and day difference to last year. More activity, more actions, more variety. Will be buzzing when hitting 3s,” said Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor about JJ Redick’s impact in the first game.
“JJ Redick got Lakers running actual plays while Darvin Ham was telling them “SALUTE!” during timeouts last year,” was a fan’s remark after watching Redick’s coaching debut.
“JJ Redick came in and took all of his favorite plays from around basketball like it was a create a 2k playbook and you know what? Hell yeah,” said one fan.
An inarguably massive moment in this game came in the second quarter when LeBron and Bronny James made history as the first father-son duo in NBA history to share the court together. Fans couldn’t help but love that moment, with Bronny playing just 2 minutes and 31 seconds, grabbing one rebound while going 0-2 from the field.
“If you didn’t get emotional watching Bronny check into the Lakers game with his dad, LeBron, you gotta check your pulse man,” said Emanuel Acho while sharing the clip of the two James checking in together.
“I was about to say how stupid the Bronny thing was but then they showed the clip of LeBron hyping him up before checking in I guess I’m a sucker for this type of stuff,” said someone on X, showing that even people who wanted to hate on that moment couldn’t do it due to the heartwarming nature of it.
The Timberwolves’ first game of the season didn’t go well with the debuting Julius Randle (16 PTS, 9 REB) and Donte DiVincenzo (10 PTS, 2 STL) in action alongside Anthony Edwards (27 PTS, 6 REB, 10-25 FG) and Rudy Gobert (13 PTS, 14 REB). Nickeil Alexander-Walker had a strong showing off the bench with 14 points and five rebounds, ending the night as a +13 while Gobert had a team-worst -22.
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