Los Angeles Lakers: 4 lessons from Anthony Davis’ record setting night vs Memphis Grizzlies

Anthony Davis has just won the Western Conference Player of the Week. Oh, the week isn’t over? Who cares! 

Forget the headline. Anthony Davis might be the player of the month based on his performances over the last two games. AD is doing his load management the way NBA players did it back in the day. He just destroys teams in three quarters and sits out the rest of the game when the game is no longer in doubt.

Remember, Anthony Davis has an injured right shoulder. The man could have scored 55 or maybe 60 points had he played the last quarter. He would have scored or got fouled. In short, Memphis couldn’t stop him.

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Davis played three quarters (He tied the Grizzlies in scoring in the third quarter with 20!) and dropped 40 points and grabbed 20 rebounds. Out of those 20 rebounds, he grabbed eight offensive rebounds, which is remarkable. He found time to block two shots and dish out two assists. Wanna see one? No NBA team has a power forward that can make passes like this. None.

Anthony Davis seals his man off in the post and draws two players to him and tight-ropes to the line under the basket and delivers a perfect pass to JaVale McGee for the slam dunk.

It’s one thing to have the strength to move Jae Crowder around and it’s another to have the athletic ability to finesse the ball around Jonas Valanciunas. Kristaps Porzingis might be known as the “Unicorn” but the Lakers really have one in Davis.

All of this was done in less than 31 minutes (30:34 for you counting at home!). That is an NBA record during the shot-clock era. It’s something about Lakers players that put up numbers so quick. The last player that had numbers at such a quick clip was Elgin Baylor who put up 46 points and 22 rebounds in 33 minutes.

Anthony Davis’ numbers were a display that hasn’t been seen in 16 years. The last player to put up a 40-20 was Shaquille O’Neal back in 2003 when he scored 48 points and collected 20 rebounds.

Davis set a Lakers record for the most free throws (26) in Lakers history, topping his teammate Dwight Howard, who had 25 back in the 2012-13 season. AD didn’t miss any of his 18 attempts in the third quarter that led the Lakers outscoring Memphis by 19 points. Since Davis had that bad night at the line against the Clippers when he shot 9-of-14, he has missed only one free throw since.

The crowd showered him with MVP chants. Right now he’s a front-runner. He was that good.