Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers are certainly not where they thought they would be at the midpoint of the 2023-24 season. Despite the Lakers’ two superstars in Davis and LeBron James staying relatively healthy, the Lakers are 20-21 through 41 games and are in the No. 10 spot of the Western Conference postseason picture.
They are still within striking distance of a guaranteed spot in the playoffs, but it’s a difficult spot to be in for a team that entered the year with championship hopes. And it’s especially difficult when Davis has been playing like a bona fide superstar for much of the season.
He is averaging 25.1 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game on 55.1% from the field, 32.6% from three and 81.4% from the free throw line.
When the Lakers superstar was asked to assess the Lakers through 41 games, he said it’s almost impossible given how much time the team’s role players have missed.
“It’s tough because we haven’t been completely healthy,” Davis said. “We’ve been in games a lot this year but we’ve been having a lot of injuries, which is always tough. The time that we’ve been completely healthy, we’ve played great basketball. So we know what we can be, but I think we just got to get fully healthy. But I like our team. I like what we’re doing, I like what we did tonight. We got to continue on that path.”
The Lakers may have gotten a glimpse of what they can be on Monday night when they defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder for the second time this season. L.A. was only missing Cam Reddish and Gabe Vincent from their originally planned rotation and defeated what has been a Western Conference powerhouse this season.
Davis believes a win like that could contribute toward the momentum of the Lakers. “By building off this win. We have another team coming in on Wednesday, no matter who is playing, they’ve been a dominant team. Luka has been out a couple games but I think Tim [Hardaway Jr.] had 42 and Kyrie [Irving] had 41 or something like that tonight.
“But like I said, I think it starts with us defensively to make that push. When we’re defensive-minded and show what we can do defensively on the floor, we tend to win those games.”
Health and momentum are critical pieces of the puzzle that the Lakers have not yet had this season. But the recipe is there for the Lakers to be successful, it’s about putting it together at the same time in order to climb the standings and get out of the Play-In Tournament.
Anthony Davis takes responsibility for previous loss
Prior to the big win over the Thunder, the Lakers fell short against the Utah Jazz without LeBron James in the lineup. Despite recording the second triple-double of his career, Davis took the blame for the team’s poor outing.
“We fouled a lot, they had 38 free throw attempts,” Davis said. “But our guys at the end of the day still did their job, everyone did their job except me. I didn’t do my job. Obviously when Bron is out, everybody has to step up and those guys did, except myself. So this one is on me.”
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