Lake Buena Vista, Fla. – After beating his shot-buzzer, winning the game and taking the Los Angeles Lakers away from their first NBA Finals appearance since 2010 with just two wins, Anthony Davis uttered a word that said: “Kobe!”
The left-wing Davis 3-pointer won 105-103 games at the end of time, wearing an alternate “black mamba” when compared to the Denver Nuggets L.A. “The uniform, which Kobe Bryant helped design many years before his death.
“Obviously we’re representing him,” said Davis, who scored .1 of his high1 points in the fourth quarter. “Especially in that jersey, it’s his jersey, he’s made it, and we want to win it at any moment.”
Lakers coach Frank Vogel reminded his team at the end of the fourth quarter of the strength of his uniform, which was taken during the huddle on the TNT telecast after the Nuggets return.
“He said, ‘Look at the jerseys you have. He would have made big time plays. So now is our big time to make plays.'” Davis said to Vogel, concluding. “Just look at the jerseys and coaches telling us, it’s a constant reminder that Kobe is with us, and we have a spirit in that kind of jersey.”
Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Ginna, were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California in January. The current Lakers team dedicated the rest of its season to the franchise star, who played all 20 seasons of his career for Purple and Gold. Davis and LeBron James got tattoos to honor Bryant, the team shouted “1-2-2 mamba!” To break the huddles, and the players wear snake skin-print jerseys.
In the first round against Portland – they first wore him on the calendar – on August 24 – 8/24, the number two Bryant to L.A. Tribute to him who wore in. They then wore them for each game 2 of the next two rounds. Ginna, who remembers on a jersey with a white heart with the number 2 in the middle, wore that number on her prep basketball team.
Davis’ shot would not have been necessary if the Lakers had not strayed from an eight-point edge with a 16-point lead in the third quarter and less than three minutes to move to fourth. Denver’s Nicola Joaquim scored the Nuggets’ final 12 points, giving his team the lead with a hook shot of 20.8 seconds left over Davis.
Rajan Rondo, who was not in the game at the time, told Davis that it was time to get Jockey back. To do so he took the ball into his own hands.
“He came and said, ‘Different passer?'” Vogel recalled. “I am, ‘Heck, yes. Let’s go. Let’s take him inside.'”
Rondo passed the inbounds from Babylon with 2.1 seconds left. Of course, James had an option to go, having hit five playoff buzzer-beating game winners in his career – the most in NBA history. But in the end, Rondo got a better option at Davis.
“I think I had eye contact with every player on my team on that game.” “My first appearance was Kenny [Kentavious Caldwell-Pope] Back door He was not there. Danny [Green] Back door He was not there. Bron and I were eye to eye, but he didn’t move, and then I saw Eddie from the outside and tried to reach him on time, on target. I had the Joker, so obviously I couldn’t throw the lobe pass, and he did the rest. “
It was the kind of moment that made me wonder what Davis could do for the rest of his career. He is now in his eighth season and is showing what he is capable of in the big games after playing on fewer teams in New Orleans. Both Rondo and Joaquim called Davis, who averaged 34 points from 52.3% off the floor, 42.9% from 3 and 86.4% from the foul line in the series, the league’s best offensive player.
James was able to recall a left-wing shot that Davis missed on March 10 that would have given the Lakers a game against the Brooklyn Nets – as evidenced by the fact that Covid-19 became LA’s last game before becoming a league interceptor. The growing faith of the big man.
“It’s not about making a shot. It’s about just taking one and believing to live with the result.” Said James. “He was on his own, but at the end of the day, I told him, if you’re open, [shoot it] … is the confidence to take a shot. “
Davis now has the confidence to know that he has many market-hit, game-winning shots in Bryant’s playoffs, matching Bryant’s pull-up jumper in Game 4 of the Lakers’ 2006 first-round series. Phoenix Sons.
“We want to embody what Kobe Bryant had and honor his memory. Obviously, there are some games where we’ll experience him a little more than others,” Vogage said. “When our uniform is on, I think we feel it more than the others. It will hit Cob Bryant.
“For me, Eddie is just flying to such a wing, catch and shoot with the biggest game on our season line, nothing but the net, it’s a mamba shot.”
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