Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons learned in sweep by the Clippers
By Ronald Agers
The Lakers got a scare when Anthony Davis twisted his ankle!
The Lakers are snake-bitten, it seems. It was bad enough that the team was on their third-string point guard in Alex Caruso, but AD couldn’t get past the first quarter without getting hurt.
At the 2:50 mark of the opening frame, Davis turned his right ankle backing into the scorer’s table shooting a 3 point shot.
Whether Davis returns tomorrow night or not, opposing defenses will basically play the Lakers this way until LeBron, Schroder or THT returns courtesy of Lakers reporter Mike Trudell. Here’s the offensive timeline before AD got hurt.
"Three of LAL’s 6 FG’s have been in transition, making them 3 for 14 in the half court. Clippers are sitting back in on everybody but Davis, knowing the Lakers don’t have the healthy personnel to break down the initial defense. LAC leads 24-14 at the 2:50 mark."
Wesley Matthews started in his place in the second half. AD finished 2-9 from the field with four points and only one rebound. The official word was that he did not return because of back spasms. After the game, Davis said he will be in the lineup against Portland.
Here’s the frustration if you are a Lakers fan.
Anthony Davis was getting into a solid rhythm before this setback. He had just dropped 25 points on the Denver Nuggets in the 93-89 upset on Monday night. Then he started strong in this game knocking his two field goals down early to the point that he was commanding all of the attention of the Clippers defense. They didn’t respect the games of his teammates.
Speaking of AD’s teammates, the rest of the Lakers roster has some real soul-searching to do. The Clippers did not see them as a threat and even if the superstars come back, any playoff team will just devise a scheme to defend AD and LeBron while rolling out the red carpet for the other players to make a play.
The TNT crew of Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal had a heated debate over the importance of the others. Read on to see what they said and how this game illustrated that.