Anthony Davis: Lakers' Defensive Improvements Due To 'Playing Desperate'
Yesterday at 01:54 PM
Los Angeles Lakers superstar Anthony Davis did not have his most efficient game of the season on Thursday night against the Sacramento Kings. But that didn’t take away from the Lakers’ ability to get a victory and for Davis to be dominant throughout the night.
Davis scored 21 points on 7-for-20 from the field, far from his usual standard. But he added in 19 rebounds, three steals and six blocks in the victory. He was everywhere for the Lakers, and he set the tone for a win in a game when the Lakers couldn’t really get much going on the offensive end.
He knows that he wasn’t at his best offensively, but Davis pulled on a familiar mantra when talking about how he was able to make up for it in other parts of his game, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I just tried to do my part. Like we’ve talked about, everybody just starring in their role. Shots weren’t really falling so I just tried to make up for it on the defensive end with rebounding and protecting the rim. I didn’t know I had six blocks and 20 rebounds but I just wanted to do my part in this win tonight.”
Davis has played the biggest of roles in the steadily improving Lakers defense. It’s a tiny sample size, but the Lakers have by far the best defense in the NBA over their last four games (98.5 defensive rating). And it’s a mentality shift that Davis believes caused that improvement:
“Nothing really schematically, I think we’re just covering for each other. I talked about it yesterday after practice, we’re covering each other, playing real hard on defense, we’re talking. We’re playing desperate, especially on the defensive end. We’ve had some practice days to kind of go over some things that were kind of hurting us on the defensive end and we had time to clean it up and now it’s just translating to the court during real games. Practice time helps us and guys are having the mentality to help each other knowing that mistakes are gonna happen. But for the most part, we want to be solid with our defense and our schemes and we’ve been doing that lately."
The Lakers have spoken extensively about needing to trust one another and play with more urgency on the defensive end. It finally appears to be happening, and the short-term results have been incredible.
However, this type of defense is not necessarily the most sustainable, and the Lakers next challenge will be figuring out a way to be effective on both ends of the court at the same time, rather than only elite at one and towards the bottom of the league in the other.
Anthony Davis not a fan of new All-Star format
The NBA recently announced a new All-Star Game format that completely turned the traditional game on its head. It will now be a four-team mini tournament between teams of eight All-Stars and one team of Rising Stars. With the announcement, players likely to be All-Stars — like Anthony Davis — are giving their takes on the game.
Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns has already gone on record to say that he doesn't like the new format. The NBA has become known in the last few years for trying to do wholesale changes to fix issues revolving around player enthusiasm, including the Emirates NBA Cup.
And although the All-Star format was in definite need of tweaking, this format certainly could be viewed as too much. That's what Davis had to say as his initial reaction to the change.
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