Anthony Davis (42 Points, 23 Rebounds) Saves Lakers in 112-107 Win over Hornets
Description
The Anthony Davis Revival continues.
At the same time he made waves by vocalizing his desire for Rob Pelinka and the front office to add another big to the Lakers roster, Davis has also elevated his play (which was, to say the least, already high level). Monday in Charlotte, Davis went for 21/11 in the first quarter, en route to 42 points and 23 boards. He was the reason—the reason—the Lakers got off to a tremendous start against the Hornets, outscoring them 39-19 in the first quarter and the reason—the reason—they hung on to win, 112-107.
LeBron James chipped in with 22/7/8, but also had five of the team's 19 turnovers that kept the Hornets in the game.
In some ways, this game is a perfect microcosm of the team's season. On the one hand, they lost focus (JJ Redick said after he felt they worked hard, but made tons of mental errors), squandering an opportunity to get their stars extra rest on the front end of a back-to-back. The offense got gummy after the defense cooled off, and they found themselves in a game that shouldn't have been competitive. On the other, they won, moved to eight games over .500 and keep pushing towards a top-6 finish.
The Lakers have the Sixers, without Joel Embiid and Paul George, tonight, then Washington on Thursday. That's a golden opportunity to reach 10 games over before tougher games against the Knicks and Clippers.
Losing big leads happens all the time in the NBA. If the Lakers had shown some of the consistency that high end teams display, it would be easy to shrug this off as annoying, but ultimately meaningless. But with the Lakers, performances like these tend to emphasize how challenging it is to figure out exactly what this group really is.
To be fair, the Lakers had a goofy rotation, with Rui Hachimura and Gabe Vincent sidelined, Jarred Vanderbilt still on a minutes limit and Shake Milton tossed back into the fray. That kind of thing matters. But the best teams tend to keep a semblance of execution through times like these. Memphis, for example, has performed admirably through a ton of injuries this season, including to Ja Morant.
So which end of the spectrum do the Lakers belong to?
HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky
SEGMENT 1: The Lakers win, thanks to AD.
SEGMENT 2: The game was a great representation of the season as a whole.
SEGMENT 3: What it revealed about the roster.
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