NBA Daily: LeBron James; Anthony Davis Resume Mantle as NBA’s Best Duo

It’s been about four months since the Los Angeles Lakers last took the court. The team was sitting in first place in the Western Conference and ready to use the second half of the season to prep for what they hoped would be a championship run when the NBA halted all operations due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

After not knowing if the league would resume play at all this season, the Lakers returned to the court in the NBA’s restart against their crosstown rivals the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night.

All season long, the Lakers’ star duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis looked like the best one-two punch in the league and, against the Clippers, they certainly picked up right where they left off.

With Avery Bradley deciding to opt-out of the restart and Rajon Rondo out six to eight weeks with a thumb injury, James took over as the starting point guard to do what he does best. He helped control the tempo of the game and allowed himself to act as a facilitator, getting his teammates easy scoring opportunities.

As the game progressed, James became more assertive offensively and had what would ultimately end up being the game-winner as he rebounded his own missed shot and tipped the ball in around Clipper defenders.

“I love having the ball in my hands late game when it’s a tie game, being up. For me, it’s just trying to be aggressive. I felt like I got some contact at the elbow from Marcus Morris, but they didn’t call it,” James said after the game. “Like you were told when you were a kid playing basketball if there’s no whistle you keep playing on. I was able to follow my own shot and put us up for good.”

James didn’t shoot particularly well, only 31.6 percent from the floor, but he did finish with 16 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. He also clamped up defensively on a couple of possessions against both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

The long-time megastar has been one of the frontrunners for the Most Valuable Player Award this year and, in his 17th NBA season, he’s showed no signs of slowing down. He’s putting up 25.7 points on 49.8 percent shooting from the field, 7.9 rebounds and a career-high 10.6 assists. Already down two capable ball-handlers and playmakers in Bradley and Rondo, James is going to be shouldering a lot more of the on-ball duties.

Thankfully for him then, he’s got a good running mate in Davis.

Davis got the Lakers going and n command early with his energy around the rim and his size and quickness going against the Clippers’ bigs. He also spearheaded a comeback in the third quarter when the Clippers took a double-digit lead.
He finished the game with 34 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists and his aggressiveness was rewarded with 17 free-throw attempts. On the season, he’s putting up 26.7 points per game on 51.1 percent shooting from the field, 9.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists.

But aside from his offensive output, one of the ways he’s been most valuable to the Lakers is defensive versatility. Davis is naturally a shot blocker and deterrent in the paint. But he also has the footspeed and discipline to match up with wings on the perimeter.

Against the Clippers, Davis started out guarding Leonard on the perimeter. He’s quite possibly the frontrunner for the Defensive Player of the Year Award. While he did pick up some early fouls, if he’s able to match up at times with either Leonard or George, that could bode incredibly well for the Lakers chances in a potential playoff series.

“We wanted to make sure we came out and executed on the offensive end,” Davis told reporters. “It felt like a real game to me, two teams battling. Obviously, it’s always a good game between us two teams. We knew they were going to make a run. They made their run and got up eleven, we just kept playing, picked it up defensively, and then we started making shots on the offensive end.”

Despite the win, Lakers’ head coach Frank Vogel still feels like this team has an extra gear they have not yet reached, a level of play that they displayed early in the season.

“To me, it feels like we have a long way to go to reach the habits we were playing with when we entered the hiatus,” Vogel mentioned Thursday. “Obviously we did enough to get the win, but we have a lot of work to do.”