Los Angeles Lakers: 3 critical things we learned from the seeding games

2. The Los Angeles Lakers’ success is mostly dependent on Anthony Davis

Anthony Davis is a really good basketball player, you already knew that. It became clear in these eight seeding games that he is the most important player on the Los Angeles Lakers and the team’s success is going to rely a lot on how he performs in the playoffs.

In the Lakers’ three wins in the bubble Davis scored 34, 42 and 27 points. He shot the ball well in all three games and played great defense. In the win over Denver, Davis was cooking early on before slightly slowing down, still having a great game.

The most points he scored in a bubble loss was 17. Some games he looked extremely passive and the worries of him showing up in the playoffs arose (such as against Toronto) and in other games, he simply was not as involved in the offense.

Either way, it is quite clear that this Lakers team needs a dominant playoff from Anthony Davis (which he is capable of) to make it past the first two rounds, let alone win the NBA Finals.

LeBron James is still older and this is not a supporting cast that he is going to be able to will to the NBA Finals, especially in the Western Conference. The Lakers need the best version of AD possible as the team truly is dependent on his play on any given night.

Once the games matter, we will most likely see the aggressive, dominant Anthony Davis return. At least that is the hope.