NBA
LeBron James: “Anthony Davis is the focus”
LeBron James assured that offensively, Anthony Davis is the leader of the Los Angeles quintet in attack and they need to support him more.
Anthony Davis was once again the Lakers’ star performer, ending with the best figures in Monday’s 112-105 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder - a result which enables Darvin Ham’s men to climb to 10th place in the Western Conference. The 30-year-old center was the Lakers’ top scorer with 27 points, and just behind him was LeBron James with 25.
Post-game, the future NBA Hall of Famer assured that offensively, Davis is the team’s reference and for that reason, he needs constant support. Generally, whenever Davis is in the zone, the Lakers usually win. So far this season, the center is averaging 25.1 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game.
“Obviously, offensively we want to share the ball - not turn the ball over. AD is always our focus in offense, getting him going early and often. And defensively, we have to be on a string to help one another. And we have to help AD rebound. When we do that, we can be a pretty good five-man lineup,” LeBron told reporters.
Regarding the five-man line-up, Davis added, ““I think we can score. I think for us it’s just on the defensive end. Are we able to play defense how we did tonight? I think the defense is what’s going to separate us and get us more wins.”
Room for improvement
The Los Angeles franchise improved its record to 20 wins and 21 losses and is still looking to improve after having a very irregular start to the season. Much of that has been down to injuries hitting the roster at key moments. Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent, Cam Reddish, Rui Hachimura and D’Angelo Russell are among those who have been absent.
That has forced coach Darvin Ham to rotate the roster practically since the campaign started and he has not been able to consolidate a starting five. Now that it has almost the entire squad, with the exception of Gabe Vincent who had knee surgery, we will see the best version of the Lakers, the one that won the In-Season Tournament in its inaugural edition last month.
When healthy, the Lakers have shown that they can compete with the best teams in the league and still have a lot of room for improvement for the second half of the season after 41 games. It’s clear that the best formula is when Taurean Price, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell start.