LOS ANGELES — Heading into the Lakers’ intraseason championship quarterfinal game against the Phoenix Suns, Anthony Davis was in the midst of one of his best offensive stretches of the season.
Davis entered the showdown at Crypto.com Arena averaging 27 points on 56.2% shooting to go along with 13.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists over the previous five games.
Coach Darvin Hamm credited Davis’ scoring output to the Lakers being more organized offensively and playing “less haphazardly” by executing more sets.
“Numbers, our analysis department is quite [support] Hamm said before the game. “When we’re organised, we’re executing and we slow down a bit, obviously the shot is missed, you want to play fast and free.
“But when we get into a dead ball situation, or a post-free throw situation, or a made basket against us where we can kind of slow down and play through it and start different moves that he’s going to be a part of, I think it just allows him to put his fingerprints on the game even more.” Much.
The biggest area where Davis has been involved more in the past two weeks has been the elbows, where he has averaged six elbow touches (resulting in 3.2 field goal attempts) in the previous five games compared to 4.1 in his first 15 games.
Tourney talk
The Lakers, who beat the Suns, Memphis Grizzlies, Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz to advance to the tournament’s quarterfinals, were vocal about their appreciation for the league’s inaugural contest.
It looks like the tournament is here to stay based on the success of this season, but have they thought about how to improve it for future iterations?
“I actually didn’t do that,” Hamm said. “I mean I’m sure I’ll have some ideas once I get back and think about these matches. But as of right now, no, not really. You’ll have kinks or something and all these new ideas that will come up once the whole tournament process starts.”
“But as of right now, we’re overwhelmed with it. So it’s just something you have to sit down and think about. I’ve been thinking about trying to keep guys healthy and trying to balance our roster and trying to find a good rhythm on both sides of the ball in a consistent way.”
The Lakers were also vocal about how the prize money for winning the championship was an incentive before the tournament began.
Former Suns and Lakers coach Frank Vogel was not forthcoming when discussing the prize money being a motivating factor but admitted it was part of the discussions with his team.
“I don’t like to reveal too much about what we talk about behind closed doors, but when we first started talking about the seasonal tournament, we mentioned that it’s not just about key players or players who have already been successful, and we get a lot of money for extra money,” Vogel said. But how do you distribute that to the support staff, to some of the younger players on our roster, and it means a little bit more to them.” “Some of these guys have enjoyed talking about the importance of this game.”
