The Los Angeles Lakers greatly missed Anthony Davis in their two losses to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors and he showed why on Friday night against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Lakers found themselves in an unexpected dog fight against a team missing 13 players, and it took masterful performances from both LeBron James and Davis to come out on top.
Davis, in particular, was dominant inside against the shorthanded Grizzlies, playing the entire second half and finishing with 36 points, 14 rebounds, five assists, one steal and two blocks.
After being hit in the eye again early in the Minnesota game, Davis sat out against Golden State due to headaches and nausea. He looked great in Memphis though and confirmed that after the game
“I felt fine. No issues with anything. Felt pretty good out there,” Davis said.
With the win over the Grizzlies and some help across the league, the Lakers have moved up to eighth in the Western Conference standings with one regular season game to play. Even though a lot of other outcomes have affected the Lakers given how close a lot of teams are, Davis knows they still just need to focus on themselves and winning on Sunday.
“We just got to do our job,” Davis added. “We don’t know what’s gonna happen with the other teams in the other games and what they’re thinking or whatever the case may be. We control what we control and that’s winning a basketball game on Sunday and see what happens from there.”
The Lakers will be playing a red-hot New Orleans Pelicans team on the road Sunday and need a win to secure that eighth spot and a chance at earning the seventh seed in the first Play-In Tournament matchup.
Returns to New Orleans usually mean extra for Davis, who played the first seven seasons of his career there, but he emphasized that this is just another game for him.
“Nah. I think after I got traded five seasons ago, that was the time where it was something. But now, it doesn’t mean anything to me now. It was five years ago.
“Obviously I spent a lot of my career, seven years, there, but I don’t really think like ‘Hey guys, it’s New Orleans, we gotta…’ I see it in a sense of they’re a good team that we got to win a game against. But as far as like personal vendetta or anything like that, I don’t know if they do, but I don’t.”
This season has been filled with ups and downs for the Lakers, but they have now entered the portion where they can’t have any downs, starting with Sunday in New Orleans.
Anthony Davis feels Lakers are in ‘great place’
Even though they recently dropped a couple games without their stars in the lineup, Anthony Davis feels the Lakers are in a ‘great place’ heading into the final stretch of the season.
If they lose on Sunday though then they could fall all the way down to 10th, so the Pelicans will be a good test in a must-win game for L.A.
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