The Los Angeles Lakers kicked off their five-game road trip the right way with an 11-point victory over the Chicago Bulls. And after a disappointing outing against these same Bulls on Sunday, Anthony Davis made sure not to have a repeat performance in front of his hometown crowd.
Davis led the way with 38 points and 10 rebounds and the Lakers’ starting lineup was absolutely dominant. With D’Angelo Russell returning from injury, the Lakers’ lineup of Davis, Russell, LeBron James, Jarred Vanderbilt and Austin Reaves combined for 107 points in the win.
The Lakers are still working everything out with their lineups and rotations, but Davis is extremely confident about the roster they have, believing they have everything in place to make a run in the postseason, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
“I think we’ve got everything we need. It’s just about going out and applying it,” said Anthony Davis after putting up 38 points and 10 rebounds in L.A.’s 121-110 win over the Chicago Bulls. “We can definitely make a run. We’ve got all the right pieces from top to bottom.”
The Lakers’ roster is undoubtedly a deeper and more complete one after the moves they made at the trade deadline. The team has shooters, creators and defenders surrounding one of the best duos in the entire NBA in Davis and James.
The Lakers have a chance to get themselves in prime playoff position if they can string together victories on this road trip. Coincidentally, the opponents on this trip are all teams the Lakers have lost to recently and that is not lost on Davis:
“We owe this [Chicago] team,” Davis said. “We owe Houston. We owe Minnesota. All these teams. Utah. So all these teams on this trip are teams that we lost to recently and we want to get some get-back. And seeing as the situation that we’re in, we need to win these games.
“So this is a time where we shouldn’t shy away from the moment. We should embrace it and these are the moments that you live for as a player.”
There shouldn’t be any need for extra motivation considering where the Lakers stand in this very tight Western Conference playoff race. But just in case, the Lakers have some with a quest for revenge against teams that have gotten the better of them. Now they just have to use that to carry them to victory and get started on that run that Davis and the rest of the team believes they have in them.
Lakers in eighth place in the West after victory over Bulls
Following their win in Chicago to kick off their road trip, the Lakers find themselves in a good place in the Western Conference standings. The team is in eighth place currently, holding the tiebreaker over the New Orleans Pelicans and stand just 0.5 games behind the Minnesota Timberwolves, who they face on Friday night.
That game will be an absolutely massive one and with the Lakers just 1.5 games behind the Golden State Warriors for sixth place, a win could put them closer to getting out of the Play-In Tournament completely.
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