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

The Los Angeles Lakers are dominant enough with their athletic big men to stop anyone. This is not an exaggeration! 

Frank Vogel has been called a “defensive coach” since he was hired. After Monty Williams and Tyronn Lue said no thanks, most fans rolled their eyes and thought it was a soft shoe statement to cover up the embarrassment of the coaching search.

Okay, maybe Rob Pelinka and the Los Angeles Lakers had a point. What the Lakers did to the Grizzlies was unfair. The clampdown started around this moment in the game.

See how the Lakers boxed up Grayson Allen and Dwight Howard used quick hands to knock the ball away? LeBron James saves the ball to Danny Green who hits AD with the alley-oop. It was a long time before the Lakers let the Grizzlies score again. The game ended here. The defensive intensity is being sparked by Dwight Howard. He’s coming off the bench now, but he is playing out of his mind defensively. This might change.

Dwight Howard’s energy is not being shown in the box scores, Lakers fans. He only scored two points, but his rim protection compared to JaVale McGee is starting to gain a lot of attention to Lakers fans.

The man said all of the right things to get back on the team, now he demonstrating it. Even the fouls that he does get are not wasted. He fouls hard and makes sure that the shots are difficult around the rim. He has even employed Dikembe Mutombo’s finger wag when he blocks shots now.

Bottom line, the Lakers are something different defensively with Howard in there in McGee’s place. Something Lake Show Life discussed before the season started.

Let’s take time for a Lake Show Life NBA public service announcement.

If you are an NBA player playing against the Lakers and LeBron James is on the floor, do not lay the ball up, dunk it. Only you can prevent chase-down blocks.

Solomon Hill for some reason tried to do a reverse layup on LeBron James. The operative word here is “tried”. LeBron James pinned his shot to the backboard and started the fast break. Quinn Cook hit JaVale McGee for a monster alley-oop dunk. This play blew the roof off the Staples Center.

Sometimes it bears wondering if some of these players watched the NBA Finals back in 2016? Do they have cable? Does anybody remember the Iguodala block? Maybe Hill was out on a date or something because that the only explanation for this.

In all seriousness, watching LeBron expend energy to make this play deserves recognition. The game was over at this point with the Lakers way ahead. The fact that he continued to play hard on the defensive end sends a message to the rest of the roster that he is all in on the defensive culture that Vogel is trying to build. This is a different LeBron from last year when he was a basic turnstile for opposing players to the rim.

But that Anthony Davis is good though.