The Los Angeles Lakers lost their opening night matchup versus the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday, 119-107, and a natural knee-jerk reaction would be to say they have the same deficiencies they had last spring.
After multiple midseason trades, they became a very good team, but the Nuggets beat them on the boards and in transition when they swept L.A. in the Western Conference finals.
As far as Tuesday’s game, many are pointing the finger once again at Anthony Davis. After a strong first half, he missed all six of his shots in the second half and didn’t score after halftime. He certainly deserves some of the blame.
But ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith took things one step further and said Davis’ poor close to the game is why he believes the Lakers will not win the NBA championship this season (h/t Lakers Daily).
.@stephenasmith says AD's performance vs. the Nuggets was "atrocious" 😳
"Ladies and gentlemen, you just saw the reason why the Los Angeles Lakers ain't going to win no championship this year." pic.twitter.com/Tal1NENw1K
— First Take (@FirstTake) October 25, 2023
“Atrocious, very concerning,” he said of Davis’ scoreless second half. “Ladies and gentlemen, you just saw the reason why the Los Angeles Lakers ain’t gon’ win no championship this year. … I’m so ticked off at Anthony Davis right now. It’s an embarrassment what happened with him yesterday. We gotta call it like we see it, OK? When this brother brings his A game, he’s one of the top seven players on the planet Earth. Charles Barkley calls him Street Clothes. I said, ‘No, I call him Six Flags.’ He’s a roller coaster. He’s up and down. You never know what you gon’ get. He’ll drop 40 one game. He’ll drop 11 the next like he did between Games 1 and 2 of the postseason last year. I believe it was against Denver. You turn around, you got 17 points in the first half, OK? In the second half, let’s look at the numbers. Second half, 18 minutes, zero points.”
Davis looked very good during preseason play, and there was hype and even excitement that he had apparently improved his outside shooting. He hit 1-of-2 from 3-point range on Tuesday, but his overall aggressiveness evaporated after halftime.
It is hyperbole to say Davis is wildly inconsistent, as Smith suggested when he called him “Six Flags.” But Davis does need to be more consistent, especially in big games. Some of that falls on his teammates and coaching staff to run the offense through him more often, especially when his aggressiveness is waning.
