Anthony Davis might have performed better as a facilitator in crunch time than ever before in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 113-106 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday, but the great All-Star man was still hypercritical about his game.
“To be hard on myself now, man, I think I’m bad now,” Davis said after finishing with 18 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocks. “I don’t make shots. I don’t make free throws. But I think tonight my aggressiveness, just a [post-up threat] and getting to the paint allowed boys to open up. “
He missed 10 of the 18 shots he tried – just 44.4% shots compared to the 53.2% clip he took on the night while connecting this season. And he was only 2-for-5 off the foul line, making the career 80.1% free-throw shooter just 14-for-22 (63.6%) in his last three games.
However, his death turned out to make a difference. The Lakers went 3-for-3 on Davis’ feeds in the last three minutes, allowing a visit to LA to turn a single possession game into a relatively comfortable win.
They were the most assists he’s ever had in a game in his career.
He slashed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to boost LA’s lead from two to five with 2 minutes, 42 seconds to go; he found Alex Caruso in the corner for another 3 to put the Lakers up by seven a minute later; and he set up LeBron James for a 3 with 1:04 over to give his team an eight-point tire. The latest flurry sealed the win and enabled the Lakers to extend their winning streak on the road to 8-0 to start the season.
“I trust my teammates. AC hit one for me. Bron hit one and Kenny hit one, and they’re in all the right places where I want guys when I get the ball on the post,” Davis explained. “And just [am] able to read while their boys double down or collapse to the paint when I got there, and I could kick it out and those guys were taking pictures. “
While Davis finished with less than 20 points for the fifth game in a row – his longest sub-20 streak last season was limited to just three games during the bubble seeding games when LA had already locked up the No. 1 seed – his assists have risen.
Five of Davis’s six assists against the Bucks led to a 3-pointer for LA – tied for most 3s he’s ever assisted in a single game in his career – and his 13 assists in the past two games are the most he has played two games since joining the Lakers.
James explained that he knew Davis had this skill of passing in him all along, but he was rarely allowed to show it in New Orleans because teams played him one-on-one, thinking he couldn’t beat them all on his own.
“But I felt like he’s been so damn good since he got here that I know he’ll be seeing a lot of doubles teams eventually,” said James.
Once those doubles come, James said, Davis has been coached to see the jobs he can reach to find open teammates.
“He keeps growing every game. Every movie session, we break those things down a little bit – what he sees on the floor,” said James. “Tonight was another example of how he saw the other side of the floor and the ball on time, on goal and guys knocking it down.”
Like Davis, Lakers coach Frank Vogel left the win unsatisfied, even though the Bucks came in the night at No. 2 in offensive efficiency averaging 120.4 points per game and the Lakers kept them well below that output.
“Well, we have to get better,” said Vogel. “We didn’t play our best basketball game tonight.”
It’s the tone of a team looking for something a lot more substantial than a regular season win in January.
“My aggressiveness tonight,” Davis said, “that’s the only way I feel like I’m getting out of this funk or where I’m in.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself to become a better basketball player every game, and I will continue to do so.”