Just missed them, that’s all,” Davis said Thursday. Didn’t shoot no shot that I didn’t shoot in Game 1. LeBron and Davis can work together if the Lakers are either able to magically turn LeBron into his 2012 vintage – that was a player who could run point, shoot effectively, and drive to the basket with consistency and impunity – or re-create Davis into a true, consistent alpha who wants to bang in the paint but can also knock down midrange shots.ĭavis wants to keep shooting. The real adjustment the Lakers need to make is beyond the realm of basketball. Or the Lakers can continue to play two non-shooters, leaving the Warriors to let James (an 18% 3-point shooter this postseason) and Davis (a 42% shooter from anywhere that isn’t under the basket) shoot to their hearts’ content. The Lakers’ roster isn’t good enough to justify that. Sure, Lakers coach Darwin Ham can stagger some of the 105 possessions (25 total minutes) Davis and LeBron played together in Game 2 (the Lakers were minus-19 during those spells), but there’s no chance one of the two is sitting on the bench in the big minutes of the game. Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) scores a 3-point basket against Los Angeles Lakers’ Jarred Vanderbilt (2) in the first quarter of Game 2 of the NBA basketball Western Conference semifinal playoff series at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, May 4, 2023. It puts them in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation now that the Warriors have gone small. While the Warriors’ non-shooters are Looney and Draymond Green, the Lakers’ two non-shooters are their two best players – Anthony Davis and LeBron James. Drop a non-shooter from the starting (and closing) lineup and play with someone else who can effectively space the floor. The adjustment should be simple for L.A.: Go like-for-like. “It was hard for us to guard four shooters,” Lakers forward Rui Hachimura said, as if the NBA isn’t a perimeter-first league these days.
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