Anthony Davis has been playing some awesome basketball lately, and it has been paying off for the Los Angeles Lakers.
With LeBron James and D’Angelo Russell out due to injury, Davis has put his team on his back the way many have been waiting for the last couple of years.
He had 30 points on 11-of-17 shooting and 22 rebounds in the Lakers’ 112-103 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday. Two days before that, he exploded for 39 points, eight rebounds and six assists in their victory over the Golden State Warriors.
Davis has hit the 30-point mark in four of his last five games, and he has had at least two blocked shots in each of his last nine contests. As a result, Los Angeles is 7-3 in its last 10 games, despite not having James for seven of them.
In addition, Tuesday marked Davis’ second 30-point, 20-rebound contest of the season, which made him the first Laker since Shaquille O’Neal in the 2003-04 campaign to do so.
Anthony Davis is the first Laker with multiple 30+ point, 20+ rebound games in a single season since:
Shaquille O'Neal (2003-2004) pic.twitter.com/0dveNBzzXF
— NBA History (@NBAHistory) March 8, 2023
Of course, Davis has a long way to go before he matches O’Neal’s accomplishments in L.A., which include three straight NBA championships, three straight NBA Finals MVPs and a scoring title.
However, “The Brow” is having what could be considered a career year. His scoring average of 26.5 points a game is his highest in five years, and his 12.5 rebounds a game and 56.3% shooting accuracy are career-bests.
