The Clippers don’t have an answer for Anthony Davis. LeBron James made the key plays in the stretch for the Lakers’ dramatic 103-101 victory on NBA reopening night Thursday, but Davis was the difference in the game. He had 34 points, eight rebounds and four assists, and dominated the paint on both ends of the floor. The terrifying part for the Clippers is that they could have done even more.
The game is so simple for Davis that it is easy to forget how talented he is. He is one of the most versatile 7-footers in NBA history. In defense, he made Kawhi Leonard look human. The only way the reigning Finals MVP could create a space out of dribbling against him was by using bomb forgeries and wrong directions:
Davis was an even bigger problem for the Clippers in attack. Despite the depth of the team, they have no one who can prevent them from reaching the edge. That’s why he attempted 17 free throws on Thursday and 14 against them on opening night. The only hole on his list is the lack of a great super-athletic man to protect Davis. Look how easy these baskets are. Marcus Morris might well not be there:
The Lakers need to take advantage of all the problems that their great superstar creates for other teams. Although he dominated Thursday’s game, he was also a spectator for long periods. That should never happen with a player who can do as many things as Davis.
The third quarter was a perfect example of good and bad. The starting lineup of the Lakers for LeBron James, Danny Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Davis and JaVale McGee was minus 13 in the first five minutes of the quarter. Davis went 0 for 3 with one rotation. He had nowhere to go with McGee obstructing the path. Larger lineups with Davis and a traditional center dominated during the regular season, but they’re easy choices for an elite defense like the Clippers’. Davis needs to be at 5 as much as possible in the playoffs. This type of space negates what it can do so well:
It all opened up when the Lakers became small. When they traded McGee and Green for Kyle Kuzma and Alex Caruso in the third against the Clippers, they had more than 10 in the next seven minutes. Playing at 5, Davis had 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting with two assists during that span. His only young lady came in a heat test 3.
That has been Davis’s story all season. His production skyrockets when he is the only great man on the floor. He has a true shooting percentage of 65.8 and a usage rate of 28.8 in 749 minutes without McGee or Dwight Howard at his side. That’s the kind of efficiency you expect from a big man who does nothing more than catch balloons. To give you an idea of how incredible the AD numbers are in that role, no one with a usage rate above 28 (the main option workload) has a true shooting percentage above 62 this season. He is completely unstoppable when the Lakers give him the space to play one on one on the edge.
That was true even when LeBron was banking on Thursday. The Lakers were over 5 in the final five minutes of the third with Davis, Kuzma, KCP, Caruso and Dion Waiters on the floor. They didn’t have a traditional point guard, so they ran everything through their other big caliber MVP man.
That is the bright side of Rajon Rondo’s injury, who is gone six to eight weeks with a broken hand. The Lakers have paired Davis and Rondo when LeBron has sat down this season, and those lineups have been eliminated, netting minus-5.0 in 357 minutes. Rondo has been with his name for a long time. He can no longer shoot, score or play defense, and the offense has to get through because opponents don’t respect him off the ball. Caruso and Waiters, unlike Rondo, can detect Davis and create space for him.
The next step for Davis is to improve as a passer. His only statistical red flag this season is his drop in assists, from 3.9 last season to 3.1. It doesn’t have to be Nikola Jokic. It is so large that it can see above the defense, and the opposing teams have to sell out to stop it. The Clippers sent double teams from all directions, forcing him to four turnovers:
The Lakers should also involve him more in defense. They don’t have many players who can protect Kawhi or George, who combined 58 points on 36 shots in Thursday’s loss. Davis wastes protecting the biggest shooters like JaMychal Green and Patrick Patterson on the 3-point line. It wasn’t perfect when he switched to George, giving him too much perimeter space and jumping on too many bomb counterfeits, but it proved he could stand up to possibly the best no. 2 options in the league:
Leaving Davis in secondary options instead of the Clippers’ stars would echo the same mistake the Bucks made with Giannis Antetokounmpo last season, when they never put him in Kawhi in the Eastern Conference finals, even when Leonard was setting the rest on fire. from your team.
The Lakers may not leave any points on the board in a possible Western Conference final showdown with the Clippers. His rivals were a shadow of themselves on Thursday, with Patrick Beverley playing just 16 minutes and Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell sitting. It will be different when Reggie Jackson is a backup point guard instead of shooting 3-for-10 in 34 minutes, and Patterson, who has not looked the same since leaving Toronto three seasons ago, is getting DNP CDs instead of protecting Davis.
The dynamic between the two teams could be like that of the Warriors and Rockets last season. Golden State knew that Houston was its biggest threat in the West, so it emptied the clip in Game 1 of its second-round series and never looked back. The Warriors immediately started Death Lineup and played their five starters 196 of the 240 possible minutes (81.7 percent) in the game. If the Lakers used the same philosophy, they would start Davis at 5, play him for 45 minutes, and put him in Kawhi or George for most of the game.
Davis is a dominant presence that can change the dynamics of a playoff series when used correctly. He just couldn’t show it much at the Pelicans. His amazing career postseason averages (30.5 points on 52.6 percent shooting, 12.7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game) are even more incredible when you consider that nine of his 13 playoff games were against the Warriors. He humiliated the Blazers, the only deadly opponent he faced, in a first-round sweep in 2018.
Davis is a great talent of all time with plenty of room for improvement. You can improve your shots and passes and spend more time protecting the best perimeter players. He is still 27 years old. We may not see the best version of him for two or three more seasons. But the Lakers may need an advance to win the title this season.
