There are only a few minutes left for the game to come to rest, the situation is far from idyllic, the Lakers They are losing at home and have not yet achieved a victory between the preseason and the Regular Season. The logical thing would be to relativize everything while waiting for time to heal everything. But it’s not like that. Dwight Howard He was heading in the direction of sitting down to listen to Frank Vogel in timeout. It was then that Anthony Davis He began to rebuke him for something that had previously happened on the court. Little by little things escalated further, words flew like knives and both had to be separated by their companions and assistants.
At the end of the meeting, Davis’s numbers revealed his state, mental and sporting: 33.3% accuracy in field goals, 0% on triple and most of the points coming from free throws. There can be many bad nights throughout a campaign, but that was the symptom of a problem that came from a long time ago.
Anthony Davis was not the same as in the Bubble.
And that explosion due to a bad direct block defense showed that something was not going as it should.
When a player reaches a career peak, it is logical to think that, from then on, his level will not drop, that this is his new ground. But this is not always a mathematical formula. Neither was it with Davis.
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The two years that have passed since the championship was obtained in the extremely complicated circumstances of the health crisis in 2020 They represented a complete and utter loss of credibility for the Lakers player. At the speed of lightning, his firm candidacy for the Finals MVP during the first meetings, so to the point of doubting their own individual conditions. A distrust that materialized at a numerical level in statistics that spoke for themselves.
He was absent more games than he played, his success rates dropped to the basement of the Crypto.com Arena (55.5% from 2, 22.9% from three and 72.5% in free throws) and he lost his defensive touch in the two seasons following the ring. Such was the decline of AD at a sporting and public level that until Charles Barkley came to nickname him “Street Clothes”in reference to the fact that he was always absent.
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When a player chains several injuries, whether due to muscular problems, isolated actions of the game or previous ailments, the mind also suffers. It takes enormous strength to face impotence, the impossibility of jumping onto the field and doing what they are paid for. That long period affected Davis a lot, so much so that he stopped looking like the same player.
Low percentages, he refused contact, at times he gave the impression of being soft, as if he were afraid of being injured again.
For this reason, the interior set itself two long- and short-term objectives. One, unrealizable, play 82 games in this season. The other, strengthen your body, that he has fulfilled His physical conditioning in terms of prevention has helped him to return to an optimal point during this course, especially since the end of January. Without going any further, since his return on January 25 he disputed 31 of the following 34 Regular Phase games plus the 13 Playoffs so far.
In the mental aspect, a Darvin Ham who has served as a guide for Davis has had a lot to do with it. The former player who has now become head coach has given him the security he so longed for, taking away responsibilities and, above all, the weight of being the team’s great internal reference. A difficult task that he has achieved by developing a collective system and not as much dependent on AD as could happen with his predecessor, Frank Vogel.
“He’s a guy who doesn’t get enough credit for how tough he is mentally”, Darvin Ham said a few weeks ago at a press conference. “Sometimes things happen. If someone gets injured it has more to do with Mother Nature than anything else. And some of their injuries have been random accidents.”.
That consistency in unavailability completely emptied a player unmatched in the entire NBA. A figure with unmatched defensive capabilities that, when he is confident enough, dominates in the strictest sense of the term in attack. Thus, it is not strange that when he has been able to play regularly and his body has respected him, his level has been impeccable. In the current Playoffs, Davis is leading in blocks (3.2) and rebounds (13.8)at the same time that he matches his best record of success in shots from two (55.2%) of his career.
Of course, all this without forgetting his defensive level, which is extraordinary. To mention just one fact, Anthony Davis is leaving his rivals in a 41.3% accuracy thanks to his defensebeing the second that covers the most shots of these Playoffs (20.9).
“AD can defend anyone in this league and we feel very confident when we start to change from a game because it can match up with smaller ones,” LeBron acknowledged after a game against the Pacers.
Davis has never been a player who has stood out especially for the depth of his words or his importance when it comes to expressing himself publicly. Rather, the Chicago native He has chosen to speak on the pitch, that it was the game that defined who he was and not the other way around. In the face of criticism, the interior kept a low profile, just as it does now that it is at the top again.
It is not only that his best version has come hand in hand with continuity and confidence in his body, he has also noticed a boost as a result of motivation. Motivation to win, to see the possibility of returning to the starting point that was that October 2020 closer and closer and doing so by facing some of the best in the league.
To reach the Western Conference Finals, AD has defeated Karl-Anthony Towns, Years Jackson Jr (Best defender of the year) already Draymond Green y Kevon Looney, to whom he scored 55 and 53% of his attempts, respectively.
All this to stand in the first duel against the Nuggets and sign the first game of 40 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks in the history of the Lakers in the Playoffs since Shaquille O’Neal in 2002, being the third along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
“AD was phenomenal”, LeBron assured after the first duel. “But he’s been great all through the playoffs. It’s nothing that surprised us.”
The floor of these Lakers will always be set by LeBron James, but the ceiling is the responsibility of Anthony Davis, a unique player out there and on whom the chances of reaching the 18th championship depend to a large extent.
The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of the NBA or its organizations.
2023-05-18 09:00:05
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