Anthony Davis is playing his BEST BASKETBALL 🗣️ – Windy credits Lakers’ success to AD 💪 | First Take

Anthony Davis is playing his BEST BASKETBALL 🗣️ – Windy credits Lakers’ success to AD 💪 | First Take

Get into it we had a wild one in the NBA last night we just showed a little bit of it Austin Reeves triple double made a tie breaking three-pointer 38 seconds left in the second overtime as the Lakers overcame the absence of LeBron James rallied to beat the Bucks 128 124

Last night Reeves had 29 Points 14 rebounds 10 assists as La opened a six-game trip by winning their fourth straight despite trailing by 19 points in the fourth quarter and never leading in regulation Anthony Davis put up 34 points 23 rebounds coach was that a top five performance this

Season hell yeah hell yeah top definitely top five in the season might be top three just dealt with a lot of adversity adversity throughout the entirety of the game was able to pull ourselves together stay focused never gave up um I always tell the team you

Know we got to we got to compete be together hold ourselves accountable and have a next play mentality you know for 48 minutes or however long it takes and so uh today tonight it took four 58 minutes next man up that’s what mad dogs do it today the Lakers have been stuck

In the number nine spot for a while but the jockeying for positioning still continues guys so the Warriors win last night gave them a bit of breathing room over the Rockets who have won nine in a row all right dog you’re up first was that a statement win by the Lakers to

Beat the bucks without having LeBron I’m going to look at it the other way with the Bucks losing and blowing a 19 point lead but I will say this the Lakers should get themselves at minimum one home game in a playin because they should be able to withstand Golden State

And end up in that ninth spot which would get him at least one home game but the Bucks I mean you got a 19point lead in the in the fourth quarter at home and LeBron’s not playing this is a very shaky team they easily I think they get

Out of the first round but they easily could lose that second round playoff series whether it’s Cleveland Orlando even the Knicks could beat them they were healthy you got to be very worried they changed coaches they’ve been a mess they don’t play a lot of Defense I’m

Looking at more from a buck loss than a Laker win that’s the way I’m going to look at the game Lakers had a big win but Milwaukee you cannot be confident that this is a big- Time playoff team these two things are not mutually exclusive of each other you can have

Both this is a brutal loss for the Milwaukee bug to make no mistake about it first of all they they they could have buried him twice in this game they came out to start the game and it looked like without LeBron you go up 15 in the first quarter Lakers could have just

Said all right we’re going to take our 30o loss and go home right you don’t have LeBron they fight back stay with an arms length bucks go back up again 19 in the fourth quarter Lakers fought their way back from that so a lot of resilience on the part of the Lakers I’m

Going to focus more on the Lakers component in this I do think it’s a statement win and it’s because not only did they show the the resilience to fight back in a regular season game without their best player they made the winning plays at the end of the game

That the Bucks did not so dog I hear what you’re saying the these things surfaced again with Milwaukee and by the way they haven’t been good in crunch time under dock now they’ve improved in other areas they definitely are playing harder they’re better defensively than they were under Adrien Griffin there is

No mistaking that I think the chemistry between little Anto kmo is better than it was earlier in the year but they are not good in close games under Doc Rivers and this has been something that doc has battled throughout his career in the playoffs so you saw it again last night

Execution defensively there were mistakes made big ones that led to wide open shots Giannis misses two free throws late in the game right that’s surfaced again is that going to become a talking point but the Lakers what they did offensively and by the way Spencer dwy a sneaky good acquisition for the

Lakers when under the radar another primary ball handler he was big for that team down the stretch A’s played like a star he’s a very good player he played like a star last night and then the most important element the impact Anthony Davis had defensively on that game you

Really can’t even put quantitate quantitate that he had two of the best defensive plays at critical times that you’ll see all year by a big and particular that BL and lard at the end of regulation if he leaves a half a second earlier to go block that shot

Yanis Tuma gets a dunk because he is engaged with him under the rim he had to wait till the last second Goes Up full extension gets the tip Lakers go on to win the game that’s a that’s a winning play at the end of the game bucks didn’t

Make them Lakers did I think this is an important moment for the Lakers you saw what Darin ham said one of the best wins of the Year first four game win streak all year that’s hard to believe and they got an easy schedule easy schedule look I’m not saying they’re going to the

Finals I’m not going to take that leap but I do think this is the kind of win dog that can carry weight with a team not all wins in the regular season are created equal I think this is a morning for Anthony Davis to get a valentine in

March because this was one of the finest performances I’ve ever seen Anthony Davis have in the regular season we’re talking about a 30p point 20 rebound 23 rebound performance largely against Giannis who was just six of his last 15 in the second half of this game because

Ad was all over the place at The Rim he played 52 minutes the most of any game in his career knowing that he had to deliver without LeBron never gave up on this game never you know did played through you know knocking knees late in the game and specifically what he was

Doing at the defensive end guys where he’s you know at times staying with Giannis playing Giannis straight up Giannis by the way had a 29o triple double he had a strong game but going in a heavyweight fight where he’s sometimes guarding yanis and other times down the stretch where they’re switching uh with

Those screens and he’s forced to switch on Dame Lillard he’s guarding both of them absolutely brilliant performance from Anthony Davis this is the reason why the Lakers are at their at this spot in this season because Anthony Davis is playing his best basketball just named Eastern Conference player of the week on

Monday he follows this up on Tuesday my gosh what a what a what a move the Lakers are where they’re at now which is in their best position of the season for two reasons one they have gotten awesome three-point shooting since the All-Star break D’Angelo Russell who had a a

Double double in this game and Austin Reeves have both been well over 40% from three-point range uh since the All-Star break they’re actually second in league in three-point percentage since the allstar break that’s huge that it lifts their offense which is where they’ve had so much trouble this season and while I

Still don’t think they’re a good enough defensive team to really do anything special in the post season this year they have been better over the last couple of weeks they’ve they’ve gone from being one of the worst in the league to sort of more towards the

Middle of the pack I think that’s large because of how well ad is playing they have a big task tonight with all these guys playing so many minutes having to play in a back-to-back in Memphis because all these games matter at this point but LeBron didn’t play last night

And if he’s able to some energy and be okay on that ankle to play tonight that could be a trump card for them so the Lakers are in much much better position than they were just a couple weeks ago uh listen they can’t get out of the play

In they don’t have tiebreaker over Sacramento and Dallas so chances are they’re going to be in at 789 but I would think out of those four they could be the seventh who would they be there let’s say Denver wins the conference Oklahoma City of Minnesota could the Lakers beat them you much

Better an expert on this than I am at the moment with the matchup they probably could Lakers last year beat Memphis now Morant was out for the most part but they beat Memphis Lakers could win a Playoff round I would think if they end up not playing Denver in the

First round good chance they’d be favored in those series because Minnesota doesn’t have Carl Anthony towns and Oklahoma City just a lack of collective playoff experience I think a lot of people would pick the Lakers to beat those two teams I’m not sure I’d go

There yet I don’t have to I don’t have to go there yet cuz we have a few more weeks is towns going to play is he going to be healthy by then watch there’s been no timeline that real quick here’s something to watch the Clippers are in

An absolute freef fall they didn’t make our graphic because they got lucky last night and they got back up into fourth place but they should be on the graphic for the playin because they are two games clear two games clear right now of the seventh spot there’s a whole bunch

Of tiebreakers and stuff also they are going to the on Eastern Conference road trip they play in Philly tonight on ESPN in a very important game they’re playing terrible right now I at this point don’t know what’s going to happen with the Clippers but they are not out of the

Woods for the playin good point and if they fall back to the playin to that seventh spot you know what that means that means the Lakers potentially wouldn’t have to leave Los Angeles for a playin situation now I’m not saying that’s going to happen but I’m saying if

I’m the Lakers I’m watching the Clippers very closely and the Clippers have a must win game tonight or else they’re going to be back in five and right on the with the Dallas Mavericks on their heels that play in situation is wide open we know who loves the Dallas

Mavericks this guy right to my left that’s right I do and they they didn’t nothing last night to dispel that that was a beat down they put on the kings in Sacramento that’s a huge game Friday because if the Kings win they have tiebreaker correct and that’s a huge

Game because they’d have a game and a half lead so that Friday game in sacrament one of those two game teams in the same city that’s a very important this is LCA this is Luca’s best team you’re high I know you’ve been high in them that’s scary yep all right if

Lakers matched up with the Clippers how do you think that plays out the way the Clippers are playing now I think the Lakers and and the momentum that they have I’d pick the Lakers to win that game if that was a one game off it was a

Best of seven probably too honestly the Clippers are a mystery to me because when you look at the offensive numbers like kawii Leonard Paul George for the most part they’re doing what they’ve done all season Norman pwell and Harden have had a slight down tick offensively in their efficiency so it’s really hard

To to exactly pinpoint what it is other than the fact that they just haven’t been very good in close games and their defense hasn’t been as good but this was a team six weeks ago that looked like they were going to make a run at Denver

And now they’re under 500 over a 6 week period that’s not a small sample size when they have been relatively Healthy

On First Take, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, Brian Windhorst and Tim Legler react to the Los Angeles Lakers’ comeback win over the Milwaukee Bucks without LeBron James.

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