LeBron James is the perfect teammate to elevate Anthony Davis

The Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James won Game 1 of the NBA Finals in dominating fashion over the Miami Heat. Anthony Davis was ready.

The Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James won Game 1 of the NBA Finals in dominating fashion over the Miami Heat. Anthony Davis played like he had been waiting for this game his entire life.

On the daily Locked On NBA Podcast, host Ben Golliver (Washington Post) and Nick Angstadt (Locked On Mavericks) explained how LeBron James has been the ultimate confidence booster for Anthony Davis.

Ben Golliver: They just have such a great two-man chemistry. I wonder if LeBron's 2012 Title is kind of a comparison point here for this series. If they wind up winning this thing in five or even potentially sweeping the series, if we're not going to look back and think that this group won in resounding fashion similar to that 2012 team.

Nick Angstadt: Yeah, I look at Anthony Davis and I just see a guy that is playing with a safety net, basically, right? He has LeBron back there to closeout the game against the Nuggets. LeBron just goes off and he still has that in him. He can still muster kind of effort that if he needs to. Anthony Davis goes out there and says, I'm just gonna play and it's not going to all be on me, right? He still has LeBron (James) behind him to pick up the slack if I'm he's able to perform. It has to just be such a freeing feeling that this isn't all just dependent on him. The fact that LeBron is setting him up in so many ways.

Ben Golliver: It's the ultimate confidence booster, right? Coming into this series, the biggest advantage the Lakers had, besides just talent, is the fact that LeBron (James) is in his 10th NBA Finals and Jimmy and Goran are in their first. That is just an experience gulf. It's not even a gap, right? It's a gulf. So if you're Anthony Davis, LeBron has been through every possible situation there is to go through. He's been up in series, he's been down three one, he's had the three one comeback, and literally any spot he's been in so the Lakers are absolutely getting their marching orders from LeBron on this one. Even Frank Vogel before Game 1 said that LeBron is the best leader he's ever seen.