The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Memphis Grizzlies, but only after Anthony Davis stepped up and took over the wheel. One of the most dominant centers in the history of the game had a superb performance this Tuesday night. He scored 40 points and caught 20 rebounds in Lakers 120-91 win over the young Grizzlies.
Though, things didn’t look that well for the hosts until the third period when AD went off and poured 20 on Grizzlies. Only two of them weren’t from free-throws, and he had a perfect record from the line, 18 of 18. The purple and gold won that quarter with 39-20 and managed to break the defiance of the rivals.
What turned out to be the most important part of the contest was a 27-2 surge of the home team happened in the third. They managed to keep the Grizzlies scoreless for the final 5:47 of that period. Up until that point, Memphis actually was very solid.
The guests opened the match with a 15-2 run, and although that advantage didn’t last for too long, Taylor Jenkins’ boys provided a lot of troubles to the Lakers. The first period ended in their favor, 32-27, but in the next one, the hosts responded and managed to get a tight lead at the halftime, 49-47. Still, the Grizzlies rallied back to reach a 65-59 edge before falling apart due to AD’s incredible performance.
”He gutted it out playing in some pain and was dominant. They didn’t have an answer and he was terrific,” Frank Vogel said.
Davies had soreness in his shoulder and was doubtful for this match. He spoke about it with the media, saying that the pain did bother him, but that there was no way of skipping or retreating from this one.
“I was really just trying to forget that,” Davis said about his shoulder.”It would bother me a lot, it was very sore, but I didn’t want to come out of the game.”
Davis became the first Laker since Shaquille O’Neal, who posted a 40 and 20 game. He became the sixth player in the history of this franchise with those stats. Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, George Mikan, and O’Neal did that before him. Although being among all the legends did flatter the All-Star center, he was more happy for his team’s victory.
‘It’s an honor to be on that list with those legends, but more important is we got the win,” said Davis.
He also broke the Lakers record by making 26 free throws, surpassing Dwight Howard, who had one fewer. He did all this in 31 minutes.
LeBron James scored 23 buckets and had 8 assists, Caldwell-Pope had 13. On the other side, Ja Morant ended the game with 16, while Jonas Valanciunas had a double-double of 14 points and 11 boards. Grayson Allen had 13 off the bench.
The Lakers (3-1) go to Dallas to meet the Mavs, and after that, have a clash with San Antonio.
Memphis (1-3) plays its next three matches at home. They will face the Suns, Rockets, and the Timberwolves.
