Anthony Davis took ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers' momentum-halting loss to the New York Knicks on Sunday. He called his performance “awful” after scoring two points in the fourth quarter.
AD bounced back in a big way at the Smoothie King Center on Tuesday to power the Lakers to a wire-to-wire romp over the New Orleans Pelicans.
“Last game everybody did their job except myself. That was on me, ” said Davis, who dropped 35 points (11-of-18 shooting, 12-of-13 from the free throw line) and 17 rebounds against his former ballclub. “I just wanted to come out ultra-aggressive tonight, knowing how important this game was. Everybody did.”
The triumph got the Lakers (9-4 since the trade deadline) into a groove on the first leg of a back-to-back (AD will be held out against the Houston Rockets), moved them into a three-way tie for the No. 8 seed, and clinched the tiebreaker over NOLA.
Ham said he challenged AD to continue to “set the tone” for the Lakers while LeBron James remains sidelined.
“It was huge, man,” the head coach said about Davis' stellar outing. “I told him, ‘Go out there and make it happen. Set the tone.' … Even when LeBron is in uniform, A knows he has to be the one to spearhead and get us moving in the right direction on both sides of the ball. Once tip-off occurs, he's gotta know that he has to be applying pressure.”
Davis didn't waste any time heeding Ham's message. He scored the first six points and posted 14 points on 5-of-5 shooting within the first seven minutes. The Lakers began the game on a 14-0 run and led by as many as 40 points in the third quarter. Despite a late Pelicans charge that cut the lead to 13, the game was never seriously in doubt.
Anthony Davis is DOMINATING early with 14 points 💪pic.twitter.com/ZLD6P7XfdT
— LakeShow (@LakeShowCP) March 15, 2023
“I never wanna be able to come out and have a performance like I did the other night against New York and let my team down,” reflected Davis. “I'm my hardest critic. I'm always hard on myself to be better. I just wanted to come out tonight and make a difference.”
D'Angelo Russell said AD's aggression from the outset flowed to the rest of the team.
“AD's a monster. He continues to dominate the games. From defensively or offensively — tonight he did a little bit of both.”
Davis has now scored 30 or more points in four of the past six games and pulled at least 16 rebounds in three of those. His dominance combined with the improved ensemble surrounding him has allowed the Lakers to ascend in the standings as LeBron recuperates.
We'll see if the supporting cast can carry the load on Wednesday in Houston.
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