Anthony Davis led the Los Angeles Lakers to victory in Toronto (125-131) with 38 points (14/20 t2 and 10/11 tl), 11 rebounds, two assists, three steals and two blocks in 36 minutes, another colossal statistic in a fantastic start to the season for the Los Angeles center, who picked up their first road win and snapped a two-game losing streak in Phoenix and Cleveland.
Lakers’ Anthony Davis gives killer look to Darvin Ham during tense timeout
With his fantastic performance, ‘The Brow’ joins legendary Shaquille O’Neal as the only player in Lakers history to average at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks in the first six games of the season in 51 years, since the NBA began officially recording steals and blocks in statistics for the first time in the 1973-74 campaign.
LeBron James (26+6+10), the lieutenant
The Los Angeles center had the invaluable collaboration of LeBron James, who scored 27 points (4/9 t2, 5/8 t3 and 4/6 tl), 6 rebounds and 10 assists. Both were also supported by Austin Reaves (20+1+6 despite his 0/6 three-pointers) and D’Angelo Russell (19+3+6) on a night in which Bronny James had a testimonial role playing the last 7.6 seconds.
For the Raptors, who are still not getting going (1-5) and suffered their third home loss and fourth in a row against the Lakers, RJ Barrett stood out with his best scoring performance of the season (33+5+12) and Gradey Dick, with the best game of his career (31+7+3).
The best thing about Toronto was that they never gave up and even though they were down by as many as 26 points two minutes into the second quarter (21-47), they did not give up and in the end even had a chance to win (98-104). But Max Christie with two free throws and Rui Hachimura with two consecutive three-pointers extended the Lakers’ lead, who found a manna in free throws: 36/41 to just 11/13 for the Raptors.
This is unacceptable… If we want to do something this season we can’t allow so many things in defence like today
What was supposed to be a happy day for the Los Angeles Lakers and especially for Anthony Davis because of his historic milestone was not so much because of the comeback they conceded and that almost cost them the game: “This is unacceptable. We won and we take that win because it’s tough to win in this league and especially on the road, but we’re a long way from where we need to be. If we want to do something this season, we can’t allow as many things on defense as we did today,” said ‘The Brow’ visibly angry after the game.
