Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers have started to go on a nice little streak after stacking another win, this time against an up-and-coming Dallas Mavericks team.
It was nothing short of an exciting game as both teams traded baskets down the stretch, but the Lakers managed to come back from an early deficit and pull out a gritty win.
Luke Doncic and LeBron James dueled for most of the night as the two playmaking wings took turns hitting huge jumpers while also finding ways to get their teammates involved. Both players finished with triple-doubles, but it was James who got the better end of the individual matchup.
Davis was also impressive as he finished the night with 31 points and eight rebounds. After the win, he revealed what he has learned most about his team so far, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“We all fight. We fighters. When you have a good team on paper, a lot of people tend to relax and think that we can come in and just get wins. When we come in, we get punched in the mouth, we got resiliency, we go out and fight each and every night. Like I said, it’s not going to be pretty every night, we’re going to get every team’s best shot and we just gotta keep pushing through it.”
At the early juncture of the 2019-20 NBA season, Los Angeles has already seemed to establish a pattern of starting out slow before kicking it into another gear in the second half of games. The game against the Mavericks was no different as the young squad raced out ahead in the first half before another third-quarter surge had the Lakers right back in it.
While James will make headlines with his gaudy triple-double stat line of 39 points, 16 assists, and 12 rebounds, Davis also had a massive impact on the game as his defensive ability helped prevent Dallas from ever truly pulling away. He also came up big in the overtime period as he was able to take advantage of the single coverage the Mavericks used and burned them for a few baskets, including a sweet stepback jumper over his defender.
It is nights like these that will remind everyone just how good this edition of the purple and gold can be when their All-Star players get going.
The team’s ability to overcome early game struggles and obstacles will go a long way in their efforts to reach their absolute ceiling.