Lakers ride Anthony Davis to win over Spurs: The good, bad and story

The Los Angeles Lakers looked to move on from another blemish to the season after an embarrassing loss at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves. After Anthony Davis went on record questioning the level of play needed to win a championship, the Lakers welcomed the San Antonio Spurs to the Staples Center for a Sunday matinee matchup.

The Lake Show controlled the entire game before bringing concerned buzz to the arena when San Antonio cut the lead to 105-103 late.

But then all order was restored with a 7-0 run to wrap up a 114-106 win.

This is one of the more complete team victories of the season with visible evidence that the coaching staff finally made some adjustments on the offensive end.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ win:

Talen Horton-Tucker returns to the lineup. Let’s be clear the Los Angeles Lakers need him. 

The staff of Lake Show Life wants to welcome Talen Horton-Tucker back to the Lakers lineup. After having thumb surgery, he made his season debut. It didn’t take long for him to make his presence felt and reintroduce the Lakers and its fanbase back to the two-way contributions he can provide to right the ship.

The game basically ramped up when Talen tried to wrap up Drew Eubanks for a foul. Eubanks tried to intimidate him and Carmelo Anthony shoved Eubanks and Anthony Davis stepped to him as well. Well here’s what happened almost immediately after that.

• Eubanks received a technical foul and Carmelo Anthony knocked down the free throw.
• THT came down the very next play and crossed Eubanks over and hit a shot in the lane.
• Then Melo came back down the next possession and knocked down a 3 pointer and was fouled by Eubanks to got to the line.

THT has that swagger filled with as some ballers call “delusional confidence” that fuels a belief that he and the Lakers can beat any team on any given night. After two losses to the Oklahoma City Thunder after blowing big leads and embarrassing losses to the Portland Trail Blazers and the Minnesota Timberwolves, THT’s it factor is exactly an ingredient the Lakers need right now.

He finished with 17 points (Including a huge layup late!), 4 rebounds with an assist, steal and a block.

Anthony Davis… Oh, that’s it.

To get the total magnitude of Anthony Davis’ performance, let’s go back to Friday night after the Lakers got booed off the Staples Center floor. AD basically acted like he was a part of the Lake Show Life staff via ESPN…

"“We sucked,” Davis said when asked about the third. “No defense. Can’t score. That’s not just this third quarter, it’s every third quarter we’ve played this season. We come out slow, lackadaisical offensively and defensively. We got to get it together. Why? I can’t tell you. But we got to do a better job.” “We got to decide who we want to be. A championship team? That’s not us right now,” Davis said. “We’re not winning a championship the way we’re playing. We got to be better, and we got to care more for our wins at home. Wins in general. That was embarrassing.”"

Sounds like a certain writer that writes for a certain Los Angeles Lakers website…okay back to the game.

AD came out in this game and played like a leader should after calling out himself and the team the previous game. He put in work in the previous win over the Spurs earlier this season.

• In 42 minutes, AD dropped 35 points, 17 rebounds (7 offensive!), 4 assists and 4 blocks.

Folks, what he did to the San Antonio Spurs franchise was just disrespectful. He didn’t acknowledge their existence in the first half as this highlight would attest.

Players do playground plays like this when they are completely comfortable in the fact that there’s no one in the Staples Center that can come close to stopping him. Well, let’s see by the stats.

• First quarter: 19 points on 8-10 shooting!
• Second quarter: 27 points 12-16 shooting! 

Now let’s throw in the two 3 point shots that didn’t even hit the rim, 7 rebounds (2 offensive!) and a steal. Oh he even hit his only free throw. Lakers Nation, this is in the first half alone. Complete dominance that he showed all year long in his championship year with the Lakers.

He finished with 34 points, 15 rebounds (5 offensive!), 6 assists, 2 steals and a block.

In the second half his play forced the Spurs into zone defenses and double teams to stop him. Instead of forcing shots, he found his teammates for 3 pointers who had plenty of time to get their shots off. Let’s meet one of the players that benefitted shall we?

Wayne Ellington was shooting that thang wasn’t he?

The word around the NBA is that shooters shoot. Well, Wayne Ellington had a jumper so sweet you could hear Duke Ellington playing in the background with the shooting rotations into the basket. He was on fire in this game knocking down five shots from the land of the extra point.

He finished with 15 points.

During the Lakers broadcast, the crew mentioned a conversation about the differences of the new basketballs now that Wilson has taken over for Spalding. He broke down the differences in the ball but he had some of the balls shipped over so he could see the differences and adjust before the season.

That really shows professionalism as a basketball player. Players around the league have complained about how the ball is more slippery and it affects their shots. Wayne on the other hand uses preparation to beat the curve so it doesn’t hurt him in games.