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

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healthy