Los Angeles Lakers: Anthony Davis sinks Denver in Game 2, 5 Lessons!

Charles Barkley compared AD to Derrick Coleman at halftime and then everything changed! 

Charles Barkley is an all-time divisive debate on Lake Show Life. The writer of this series absolutely loves him and you’d be hard pressed to find more than five Lakers fans that can’t put him and the team in the same sentence without the word “Hater” attached to it. His history on this site is quite long. It spreads from how close he was to joining the Lakers, to LeBron James playing the point guard position, to a personal on air invitation after the Lakers were knocked out of the playoffs.

• Lakers Rumors: The time Kobe Bryant cussed out Charles Barkley!
• Lakers Rumors: How close Charles Barkley came to being a Laker!
• Los Angeles Lakers: Is Charles Barkley right about LeBron James?
• Los Angeles Lakers: Charles Barkley invites LeBron James to the TNT Studios for one night!

Barkley’s predictions have taken on a life of it’s own being so bad. Most of his predictions throughout the postseason including the Portland Trail Blazers beating the Lakers in the first round have gone badly.

Not nearly as bad as his comments comparing AD to Derrick Coleman!  

In the first half, Anthony Davis had 9 points on 3-7 shooting. He did not come out of the gate as strong as Game 1. Barkley stated that AD was a nice guy that is a great player lacking killer instinct.

Even the biggest Charles Barkley fan wasn’t going down that alley with him. Derrick Coleman? Anyway, it was like the team was watching the halftime show in the locker room.

In the second half, Anthony Davis went crazy dropping 22 points after Barkley’s comments. In the 4th quarter, AD matched Nikola Jokic in big shots all the way to the buzzer.

AD had a stat line of 31 points (11-23 shooting!), 9 rebounds (2 offensive!), 2 assists, 2 blocks and a steal. His two 3 point shots were late in the game and were important to the Lakers avoiding a split.

• Davis had a step-back 3-pointer to give the Lakers an 8 point lead with less than three minutes on the game clock with the Nuggets making it’s charge.
• Then the other one? Well, that one will be replayed on highlight reels for the next 25 years easy! 

Davis just made the list as the 7th Laker all time to make a buzzer-beater in the playoffs. The others include Kobe Bryant (Duh!), Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Derek Fisher, Robert Horry and Metta World Peace.

This is an important moment in the franchise’s history. Nikola Jokic was killing him the defensive end and scored the go-ahead basket on him. He could have easily dropped his head and lost focus. For Davis to be willing to accept the challenge of taking the last shot?

Frank Vogel described it via ESPN. 

"“That’s a shot Kobe Bryant would hit,” Vogel said. “To me, AD coming off, just flying to the wing like that, catch-and-shoot with the biggest game on the line of our season, nothing but net, it’s a Mamba shot.”"

Charles Barkley will be cooked for the Derrick Coleman comparison (Not even remotely close!), but he is right in this context. Davis does have to come out of the gate aggressively for the Lakers to be successful. Plus, AD did agree about that point when Charles asked him in the post-game interview.

Plus its kind of difficult to get out the gates when LeBron James was hotter than fish grease to start the game! Read on to see how he did. He killed the Nuggets in the first half. The problem was the rule book states teams have to play two!