The Los Angeles Lakers have the leading candidate for Defensive Player of the Year!
Sure, the Brooklyn Nets made the move for James Harden and everyone can see why. Now that the Nets made a move, look for other contenders to do the same trying to make a run for Bradley Beal or other players of a high skill level.
The reason why these moves will be made is because the NBA got a glimpse of a motivated Los Angeles Lakers team on this road trip. These games weren’t just wins. They were thorough beat downs that sent a message throughout the league.
Those teams realize they need offensive firepower to hang with “The Scheme” Anthony Davis.
AD is the difference that keeps the Lakers two levels ahead from the rest of the NBA. Here’s a visual at the start of the game.
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) January 14, 2021
Anthony Davis is showing how badly he wants to repeat. Last year, he would have held the ball and shot a fade-away jumper. Here he took Darius Bazley to the rim and dunked on him while placing Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the back seat.
There is no answer for AD and the contenders know it. He is too skilled, too long and too good on both ends of the floor. if teams dare to try a small-ball lineup, this will happen to NBA opponents through to the Finals and beyond. Davis scored 12 points before he broke a sweat on his way to 18 points, 7 rebounds (3 offensive!), and an assist. The streak of games with multiple blocked shots ended however.
This was a total team effort but there are two players that deserve some shine. One of the players has been on the other side of the equation. Read on to see who those players are.