One glance at him on the basketball court and you just know Anthony Davis was born to play the game, and play it well. His arms seem to extend to the heavens. His legs carry him with the speed and certainty of a much smaller man. He can beat opponents inside and outside.
One problem when you stand 6-foot-10 and weigh more than 250 pounds, as Davis does, the body tends to break down under the stress of the game, of the constant running and jumping and twisting and turning and the relentless pressure from opponents just as big and strong.
When he’s healthy, all is right in the Lakers’ world.
When he’s not, well, it’s going to be a struggle.
Davis has been on the floor for each of the Lakers’ past 13 games, including their play-in tournament victory Tuesday over the Minnesota Timberwolves that sent them into a first-round matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies that begins Sunday afternoon. It’s his longest streak of games played this season.
He’s also played in 30 of the past 32 games, sitting out twice for the second game of back-to-backs.
His impact down the stretch has been enormous, as the Lakers stormed into the playoffs with victories in 10 of their past 12 games after starting the season with losses in 10 of their first 12 games. He averaged 26.2 points and 12.5 rebounds as the Lakers went 14-6 in games in March and April.
But it’s come at a price.
Davis soaks his feet in an enormous bucket of ice as he rests and recuperates while seated at his locker stall after each game, the better to ease the pain of what the Lakers officially describe as a “right foot stress injury.” LeBron James soaks his aching feet in a similar ice bucket at the next locker.
“We wanted to get this rest, let our bodies heal, recover,” Davis said after the Lakers rallied for a 108-102 overtime victory Tuesday over the Timberwolves. “I mean, we’ve been going at it in playoff mode since the All-Star break trying to get in. So, it’s good to have four days to recover, let our bodies heal, get some mental preparation for Memphis and go in kind of fresh on Sunday.”
The Lakers played eight games, winning all but one, during a 14-day span. Their connectedness has been obvious, despite occasional lapses that included falling behind the Timberwolves by as many as 15 points in the third quarter. But they meshed well when it mattered most in recent games.
They even managed to rebound after Davis’ ill-advised foul on Mike Conley’s 3-point attempt that resulted in Conley sinking three clutch free throws with 0.1 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter that sent the game to OT tied at 98-98. James later referred to it as a “brain fart” during a TV interview.
James joked that Davis’ foul and Conley’s free throws deprived teammate Dennis Schroder of the game-winning shot, off James’ assist, with 1.4 seconds remaining. A laughing Davis, standing nearby, offered a heartfelt apology to Schroder and James in front of the TNT camera.
Lakers coach Darvin Ham said the Lakers talked it over during the timeout before the five-minute overtime period began and quickly put it behind them. They went on to outscore the Timberwolves by 10-4 in OT, holding Minnesota to 2-for-8 shooting and forcing three turnovers.
“I think the biggest thing for us is our resiliency, fighting, being down in certain games and taking it one possession at a time, guys not getting frustrated, guys not arguing with each other, getting flustered, staying on that positive energy and manifesting like we were winning,” Davis said.
“We were going to win these games,” he added after Tuesday’s game. “Everybody plays that way, being in the moment, next-play mentality. It’s fun. We got to have fun with it. Guys are having fun, enjoying the moment and it’s showing on the court. So, obviously all that plays into chemistry, but not having as much practice time as we would like, just because it’s been full steam ahead since the All-Star. We’re finding ways to win basketball games and now we kind of get four days off and get a chance to practice and really lock in and prep and be even scarier.”
Can the Lakers keep it going? Can the seventh-seeded Lakers upset the second-seeded Grizzlies and become the first team from the play-in tournament to win a first-round playoff series and advance to the second round, where they would meet the winner of the Golden State-Sacramento series?
Some, but certainly not all of the burden will fall on Davis’ shoulders. He averaged 25.9 points, second behind James’ 28.9 points, plus a team-leading 12.5 rebounds in 56 games during the regular season. He had 24 points and 15 rebounds in 43 minutes Tuesday against Minnesota.
Ham said late Tuesday the Lakers can still do more to free Davis, to make him a greater and more valuable player offensively. Davis had back-to-back games with 38 points followed by a 40-point outburst during the first three games of a four-game road winning streak earlier this month.
But he closed the regular season with modest outputs of 21 points against the Utah Jazz, 17 against the Clippers, 14 against the Phoenix Suns and 16 against the Jazz this past Sunday. He bounced back with a productive game against Minnesota despite suffering what Ham called “a stinger.”
Keeping him healthy and on the floor is only the first step.
“We’ve got to be able to move him around and that falls on my staff and I because, in the isolation, he’s going to get double-teamed,” Ham said. “So, trying to get him in more pick-and-rolls, more second shot actions, move him to different areas on the floor. Not so much on the side. Maybe more in the middle.
“There’s a plethora of things we can do that we have in our treasure chest that we can try to allow the game to be a little easier and force the defense into compromising positions. Just got to go back and look at the film because they double-teamed on every angle on the baseline and on the dribble from the top, on the catch, when the pass was in the air.
“We’ve got to do our due diligence to see how we can best serve our player.”
