Yeah also read that. They are flipping Oubre and Rubio for more assets. I guess OKC wants the picks more than a promising player. Is there a way we can trade a future pick for Oubre?
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Davis and Green Blazer Blockfest!
🔒🔥#LakeShow pic.twitter.com/o0TdQNEKXi
— Matt Evans (@MattEvansBBall) August 23, 2020
Lakers Hone Championship Blueprint With Anthony Davis Playing the Five!
Anthony Davis only played center for 17 minutes in the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game 3 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers last night but for the second game in row the Lakers dominated play and won when AD played the five.
The Lakers outscored the Blazers by 16 points in the 17 minutes Anthony Davis played the five, which is the reason they were able to win the game 116–108 and come back to take a 2–1 lead in the first round of the series. Four of five of the Lakers’ lineups that played over 1 minute and posted the highest net ratings last night featured Anthony Davis playing center, more confirmation AD at the five is unquestionably the Lakers’ best lineup.
Here’s are the Lakers’ 5-player lineups with AD at center from NBA.Com:
Here’s a quarter-by-quarter breakdown of AD’s four stints at center:
Davis first moved to the five with 5:11 remaining in the first quarter and the Blazers leading 20–14 and helped the Lakers cut the Blazers lead to 25–29. AD struggled the entire quarter, only scoring on 3 of 7 free throw attempts. Anthony’s uncharacteristic poor free throw shooting must have been contagious as the Lakers missed a golden opportunity to get off to a good start by only making 8 out of 15 free throw attempts in the first quarter.
Anthony started playing the five with 3:36 left in the second quarter and helped the Lakers reduce a 6-point 43-49 deficit when he entered the game to a 53-54 deficit before sitting down with only 13 seconds left in the half. Unfortunately, the Blazers’ McCollum hit a 3-point jumper at the buzzer to give Portland a 57-53 lead at halftime. Davis ended up with a disappointing first half scoring just 6 points although posting 5 boards and 3 assists.
Anthony Davis’ dominating stretch at the five came in the Lakers 40-point third quarter when Vogel took out JaVale McGee and moved AD to center with 4:35 remaining in the third and the Lakers leading the Blazers 77–76. Over the final 4 minutes and 35 seconds, Davis scored 7 points, grabbed 2 rebounds, and anchored a stifling defense as the Lakers outscored the Blazers by 8 points to take a 93–86 lead at the end of the third quarter.
AD’s final stint at the five came with 3:25 left in the fourth quarter when Frank Vogel pulled Dwight Howard and moved Anthony Davis to the five with the Lakers still holding onto a 7-point 105–98 lead over the Blazers. Davis finished a strong fourth quarter with 12 points, 3 boards, 1 assist, and 1 block as the Lakers repelled the Blazers’ desperate efforts to close the lead and clinched their second straight win to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
As the Lakers rediscover their mojo, it’s becoming obvious they should be playing Anthony Davis more at the five as it’s their best lineup. They may not want to start AD at the five but he clearly needs more minutes there. The Lakers have played Davis at center for only 48 minutes total in the 3 games against the Blazers or just 16 of the 36 minutes per game he’s played. The Lakers need to increase that number each round of the playoffs.
In fact, the Lakers would be smart to begin ramping up AD’s minutes at the five for the remainder of this series because they’ll need a heavy dose of it when they meet the small ball crazy Houston Rockets in the second round. The Lakers are going to need Anthony Davis to play center for 25 to 30 minutes per game to matchup against the Rockets so it makes sense for him to begin upping his minutes at the five for the rest of the Portland series.
The further the Lakers progress in the playoffs, the tougher the challenge becomes and the more they’re going to need AD to play the five if they want to have a legitimate chance at winning their 17th NBA championship.
NBA Mock Draft 3.0
Join our NBA Draft experts as we pick the 1st round in our NBA Mock Draft 3.0 with Rafael Barlowe of NBA Draft Junkies and Gerald Glassford from Lakers Fast Break!
5 Things: Lakers and Blazers Game 3! Winning in spite of …
Wow, that had all the makings of a game 3 disaster. Portland had guys stepping up, we had issues in places that usually lead to losses but in spite of it all the Lakers pulled out the win!
- Attacking the rim. Lakers missed 15 free throws (28-43)…still won! It was one of those nights where even AD had struggles at the stripe. , he only hit 50% (7-14). LeBron missed 5 and in fact every Laker that shot a free throw missed at least 1 free throw (except KCP, 2-2). We got to the line a ton though by attacking the rim, attacking the mismatch and staying in attack mode all game long.
- Coughing it up. We had turnover issues last night, especially LeBron (8!!!) but we overcame those by staying focused on driving the ball into the defense and forcing the issue at the rim. In all honesty, if you just looked at how the Lakers played in the stat sheet and didn’t see the score you might come away thinking we lost.
- The greatness of Anthony Davis. It’s no secret how up and down Davis has been in the Bubble. Here one game, gone for a few, hey he’s back, whoops-there he goes again… But for 2 games running he looks like the dominant version of Davis we got accustomed to in the regular, regular season. He was in beast-mode on defense (3 blocks and 2 steals), cleaned the glass (11 boards) and hit shots from everywhere inside the arc (0-2 from three, 9-16 from everywhere else) and he forced his way into 14 foul shots (we mentioned his waaaaay below average above, no need to harp on it).. The dude was unstoppable and is the singular reason I think we’ll win the series.
- LeBron James flirting with a quadruple-double!!! OK, one of those would have been 10 turnovers so not THAT exciting but the dude is locked in and focused. Shot great from three (4-8) grabbed one more board than Davis (12) and even shot and made more free throws (12-17). The last stat is good news for Laker fans and James himself, he had not been getting any love from the refs having to endure hits to the head, dudes all over his arms on his drives and the regular level of increased contact that is allowed in the context of his game. Hopefully we can bottle most of this performance (with the TO’s filtered out, please) and brew a batch of 14 more.
- Alex Caruso looking good. AC was a dynamic force once again. Asked to be the back up point guard it took Alex a few games to re-acclimate himself to that role, again. He’s looking like he’s finding the right mix, especially on offense where he was aggressive and accurate. His 7 assists were huge as they allowed James to focus more on his all around game and not just directing the offense. When Caruso plays like that, hitting the open shots given to him, finding his teammates for baskets in the flow and being his normal defensive ace self he helps to unlock the best versions of his teammates.
It was just one game, Dame looked like he was still adjusting to playing with a dislocated finger, Melo was off early but really caught fire after the first quarter, and CJ McCollum was only good, not great. For Portland to win those three have to be more efficient than they were (credit the Laker defense a little but they also missed a fair number of make-able buckets) and they need someone from their bench to contribute something. Gary Trent Jr. was the only guy off the bench who brought much game and the Lakers exposed his lack of size on LeBron all game long. Trent is game but there’s no question he’s out of his depth on that match up. I expect Portland to make some adjustments between now and Monday and that we won’t get quite so many favorable whistles, either. We’re a long way from moving on to the next round but this was a great effort.