Los Angeles Lakers: 3 lessons from Anthony Davis, LeBron James historic night in New Orleans

Anthony Davis broke the Pelicans fans’ hearts again and set a record in the process.

Anthony Davis will probably miss out on the MVP award this year. Based on the narratives he will more than likely get Defensive Player of the Year. It’s games like this that make it a crying shame.

It’s one thing to go into a hostile environment with the weight of the NBA world on your shoulders. It’s another to get booed lustily every time you touch the ball. But it is a totally different thing to go out and set an NBA record doing it. AD is the first player in NBA history to score 40 points in his first game vs a former team.

He made it clear in the first minute that work was going to be done in this game.

In 37 minutes, AD finished with 41 points, nine rebounds (three offensive!), three steals, a block and an assist. After injuring his elbow in a collision with Josh Hart, he came back in the game to help his team on the defensive end to close the game. Forgive the man if he sleeps on the couch during NFL football all day on Thanksgiving Day. Dude was balling.

To be clear here, the Lakers needed EVERY stat that Davis put in the box score. Scoring was at the top of the list. Only three Lakers scored in double figures in the entire game.

If Anthony Davis is trying to shed his soft and injury-prone label, he can stop. Those whispers can cease. Davis could have easily sat out the rest of the game or put together useless minutes worrying about his elbow. He basically relaxed the Lakers fans the second he got back in the game here.

Then closed out the game at the line hitting three of four free throws. If the Los Angeles Lakers are smart, they will sit him out Friday’s game to nurse the injuries. This is not load management unless you call it the management of the load of injuries the man has. They are piling up folks.