Los Angeles Lakers are Becoming Anthony Davis' Team During 2023 NBA Playoffs
With a 117-112 victory at the Chase Center on Tuesday, it took just one game for the Los Angeles Lakers to steal home court from the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Semifinals.
Yes, the same Lakers who started the regular season 2-10 and had to survive the play-in tournament to even make the postseason now have the inside track to the next round over the defending champions.
And they have Anthony Davis to thank for getting them there.
Yes, D'Angelo Russell hit some big shots on Tuesday. Jarred Vanderbilt, who was a plus-eight in the five-point win, deserves a ton of credit for his on-ball defense against Stephen Curry. Dennis Schröder was explosive off the bench. And LeBron James had a double-double with 22 points and 11 boards.
But the driving force behind the W was AD, who finished with 30 points, 23 rebounds, five assists and four blocks.
Tim Duncan is the only player in league history to match or exceed all four marks in a single playoff game. He did it during the 2003 Western Conference Finals, and his San Antonio Spurs went on to win the title that year.
One massive night from Davis certainly doesn't forecast the same result for the 2022-23 Lakers, but he's finally proving capable of the alpha's role on a championship contender. And make no mistake, he and the Lakers are contenders.
AD is L.A.'s overwhelming leader in postseason wins above replacement (the cumulative version of FiveThirtyEight's RAPTOR, an adjusted plus-minus metric that incorporates box-score stats, play-by-play and tracking data into a single number).
After what he did on Tuesday, Davis is averaging 22.1 points, 15.0 rebounds, a league-leading 4.3 blocks and 2.4 assists this postseason.
He's the team's overwhelming leader in playoff blocks and rebounds, and he's now tied with LeBron for the team lead in scoring. But those numbers don't quite capture the entire impact (or the increasingly apparent gap between Davis and LeBron).
Davis' postseason true shooting percentage is 4.4 points clear of James'.
When AD's on the floor, the Lakers are plus-11.9 points per 100 possessions, compared to minus-12.5 when he's off. That 24.4-point swing is almost as big as Nikola Jokić's regular-season mark, and it's miles clear of LeBron's minus-10.6 during these playoffs.
The play that leads to those numbers is happening on both ends.
Whether it's his foot or his age (or some combination of both), James isn't able to get around defenders as regularly as he did in the past. Having a reliable interior option to feed is helping the Lakers cope with that (as is D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves' burgeoning playmaking, but those are stories for another day).
And it's not like all of Davis' buckets are being manufactured for him by distributors.
He leads the team in postseason offensive rebounds (an underrated form of shot creation). On Tuesday alone, he grabbed four, including three in the fourth quarter. He immediately dished to Jarred Vanderbilt for a dunk on one and got a putback of his own on another.
His aggressive rim runs are bending defenses. And while he hasn't been overly reliant on jump shots, he's made enough to make defenses aware of his range.
And even with all that in mind, it's abundantly clear that where Davis truly stands apart is on the other end of the floor.
Beyond the blocks, AD has been a menace on most of his opponent's possessions this postseason. With his length and quickness, he never seems out of position, even if he has to scramble back to the paint after chasing somebody on a switch or blown assignment. He's also dominating the glass, averaging a playoff-leading 11.9 defensive rebounds per game.
For the entire postseason, he's defending 19.0 shots per game and holding opponents to a field-goal percentage a whopping 15.3 points below expectations.
That's bonkers.
And when you combine this level of defense with occasionally dominant offense, Davis looks like an MVP-caliber player. Or, perhaps more appropriate for May, a Finals MVP-caliber player.
LeBron is still taking more shots per game, but it's becoming increasingly clear that Davis is the star around which this system orbits.
And after a midseason coup or makeover or whatever you want to call it, this system may have everything it needs to make a Finals run.
James, Reaves and Russell are three playmakers who can make life easier for Davis. Reaves and Russell can generate more space for AD inside with their shooting. Jarred Vanderbilt and Rui Hachimura have the size and toughness to help the team play bully-ball. Schröder can create an extra offensive spark on occasion.
After a year and change of hand-wringing over Russell Westbrook's fit and general roster construction, the Lakers suddenly check a lot of boxes.
But it takes more than that to win a championship. That often requires a superstar. Sometimes, it requires someone in the "best player in the world" conversation. LeBron's name still carries that weight. Davis' game is starting to do the same.
