The Lakers need you, Anthony Davis. They need you to be the All-NBA big man you have been in four of your 11 seasons. To be the MVP candidate you have played like in each of them. To score. To rebound. To dominate.
To be, well, Anthony Davis.
The Lakers are in trouble. LeBron James is out with a foot injury, and it could be weeks before he returns. Any post trade-deadline momentum L.A. has built was dashed when cellphone cameras caught James limping out of American Airlines Center in Dallas on Sunday. The Lakers are a game back of the final play-in spot in the Western Conference, but they will likely have to secure it with the all-time great in street clothes.
They need Anthony Davis. Not the fragile, injury-prone version the Lakers have had over the past few seasons, but the player who powered the Lakers to a championship in the COVID-19 bubble. Not the one with the back, wrist, feet or groin injuries, but the dominating post player who can single-handedly change games on the defensive end.
On Tuesday, the Lakers got the latter version of Davis. Yes, they lost to Memphis, 121–109. No shame in that. The Grizzlies are a 37-win team with a strong hold on a No. 3 seed. They have Ja Morant, one of the NBA’s best playmakers, and Jaren Jackson Jr., a front-runner for Defensive Player of the Year. The Lakers came to town down James and D’Angelo Russell.
So, the Lakers lost, but not because of Davis. Davis was brilliant with 28 points, 19 rebounds and five blocked shots. He got to the free throw line 13 times, making 10 of them. He was everywhere. The Lakers lost because they committed 26 turnovers (Davis, to be fair, coughed up five). They lost because they couldn’t contain Morant in a 28-point third quarter. They lost because they gave up 33 fast-break points and 86 in the paint.
“You turn the ball over; it’s hard to get your defense set,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “It was a cause and effect with our turnovers.”
There are 20 games left in the Lakers’ season. Many of them are winnable. They have the third-easiest remaining schedule, per Tankathon.com. Among its tougher opponents are a Warriors team still without Stephen Curry and a Dallas team that can’t seem to make a shot in crunch time. Ahead of the Lakers in the standings are the free-falling Pelicans and a Jazz team that could start shutting key players down at any minute.
James is irreplaceable, but making the play-in without him is achievable.
A lot has to go right. The Lakers have to stop fumbling the ball all over the floor, for starters. On Tuesday, they looked like the same sloppy team that stumbled through the first two months of the season—Dennis Schröder committed six turnovers. Austin Reaves had four. Memphis collected 41 points off the Lakers’ turnovers. L.A. scored nine.
Role players need to step up. Rui Hachimura wants a big payday this summer? Do better than nine points on 3-for-7 shooting. Schröder wants a long-term deal this offseason? Don’t just stand there in transition after throwing the ball away. Russell wants to prove he is worthy of another max contract? Rub some dirt on that sore ankle, get back in the lineup and deliver.
But the real pressure is on Davis. Lakers fans hate to read it, but their team overpaid for Davis in 2019. Bidding against themselves, Magic Johnson & Co. gutted the franchise of players and draft picks for a star who had made it clear he only wanted to be there. The L.A. faithful will tell you Davis’s role in delivering the ’20 title justifies the price, and maybe it does. But give both teams a mulligan, and the Pelicans are likely the only ones willing to do the exact same deal.
These final 20 games are an opportunity. Davis made it clear the Lakers have “more than enough” to win. They have shooting, solid role players and two stars in Davis and Russell to lead the way. Climbing over the Trail Blazers should not be looked at as some herculean task.
“[LeBron’s] presence on the floor, his voice, his playmaking ability, his scoring ability will definitely be missed,” said Davis. “Other guys have to step up. I have to step up [and] just come out and be aggressive.”
On Tuesday, he was. He won the matchup against Jackson, arguably the NBA’s top interior defender. He was a menace in the paint. Playing through his own injury (he has been listed as probable before games over the past few weeks with a foot issue), Davis was active on defense and sprinted up and down the floor in transition.
He will need to be that player. And more. Every night. No one was more surprised than Davis to hear about the severity of James’s injury. “I’ve seen him play through a lot of stuff,” Davis said. And no one wants to give James a shot in the playoffs more than him. “I want him to get completely right and healthy before he steps on the floor,” Davis said. “It’s on us, the other guys in the locker room, to step up.”
No one can take that 2020 title from Davis, but this is his chance to build on it. When the Lakers acquired Davis, they envisioned a team he would eventually take over, allowing James to age into more of a supporting role. That hasn’t happened. James continued to defy even the most optimistic expectations, while a string of injuries forced Davis to spend considerable time off the floor. A defining stretch won’t erase the memories of the past two seasons, but it will certainly help some forget them.
Before Tuesday’s game, Ham told reporters, “The mission is still the mission.”
Davis agrees.
“It’s a tough blow,” Davis said after Tuesday’s game. “[LeBron] is not coming back anytime soon. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We can’t put our head down. We have to go out and compete to the level we did tonight.”
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