2. LeBron James and Anthony Davis did play well
The Los Angeles Lakers are built around one of the best duos in the league in LeBron James and Anthony Davis. This duo does have some long-term question marks with LeBron’s age and AD’s injury history but when they are playing and it is right, it is fun to watch.
At the very least, Lakers fans got to see these two star players play a good brand of basketball. It was not perfect but it shows that if the front office can just get the right pieces around them that they can still make noise in the playoffs.
The problem in this game was that the role players simply did not help at all, which is not a surprise in the slightest. Lakers not named LeBron James, Anthony Davis, or Russell Westbrook scored a combined 22 points in this game. That is simply not good enough.
LeBron led all Lakers with 31 points to go along with 14 rebounds and eight assists. He was efficient from the field at 12-25 but did make only three of his 10 shots from beyond the arc. That is where the Lakers are at. LeBron has to take 10 threes per game.
Davis scored 27 points on 10-22 shooting with six boards and four steals. He still proved that he is not a threat from downtown, as he missed all three of his three-point attempts.
Again, it was not perfect, but if you are getting around 60 points from two players you should be able to win basketball games with the right help around them. Which leads us to the final thing to be optimistic about.