Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers are off to a hot start to begin the 2019-20 NBA season.
After losing their season opener to the Los Angeles Clippers, they’ve rattled off six consecutive wins in a row, including impressive wins over the Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, and San Antonio Spurs.
Davis himself has been playing incredible basketball during this stretch, including a 40-point, 20-rebound performance against the Memphis Grizzlies — a game that earned him NBA Player of the Week honors in the Western Conference.
Davis spoke about how this season has gone so far knowing the Lakers are getting every team’s best shot, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Yeah, I mean we know that we’re going to get every team’s best shot like you said, and it makes the games more fun. When you have to come in and play each and every game like the championship game, it makes the game more fun for me. It makes the game more fun for everyone knowing that we’re getting everyone’s best shot. So that’s why we make sure we do the things we’re supposed to do. And we’re hard on ourselves, we know that it was a tough win for us, an ugly win. But at the same time, we’ll take it, but we have to constantly get better from wins too. We can’t just look at losses and try to get better.
Coach will come to film sessions and for 30 minutes, we’re breaking down defense, offense, ways to get better, off of wins as well. So we know we have a target on our back and we have to continue to get better each game and approach each game like it’s a championship game knowing we’re getting everybody’s best shot.”
Davis gave a very detailed answer to show how seriously the Lakers take getting everybody’s best shot. This means there hopefully will be not too many nights off when the Lakers play some of the lower-tier teams in the league.
This felt like the case when the Lakers took care of business against the Grizzlies and the Charlotte Hornets, even after getting off to slow starts in those games.
If Davis and the Lakers can be ready to play their best a majority of the time regardless of opponent, it’s possible they finish the regular season with a higher seeding in the 2020 NBA playoffs than anyone pictured.
