Good time :<\/strong> Format, Schedule and Prize Money FAQs<\/p>\n<\/aside>\nThat's why teams plot, trade, tank and even pray to get their hands on a superstar like Davis, whose 41-point, 20-rebound mega game broke the back of the undersized Pacers. It's only been the Lakers' game plan to put the stars together for the last fifty years or so \u2014 and it will be for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe've been doing it together for a long time, five years now, and we're just figuring it out,\u201d Davis said. “We know each other's tendencies. … We feed off each other. On Thursday, LeBron succeeded [scoring 30 points in just 23 minutes in a blowout over the New Orleans Pelicans].<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight it was me, and he still did his thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\nThe Lakers' LeBron James, left, and Anthony Davis celebrate their victory in the first tournament of the NBA season. Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\nThe Lakers having two superstars is why, regardless of their shortcomings from season to season, they remain such a threat. James has been on better teams; the Lakers won Saturday despite making only two 3-pointers as their shooting remains a problem. But all of his trophies came when he had at least one future Hall of Famer alongside him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe've played too many games together, shared too many moments together, played too many big moments together to fail each other,\u201d James said of Davis. \u201cThat was everything, especially at the end of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
They failed, of course. Missing the playoffs two years ago, despite injuries, was a disaster. But reaching the Western Conference finals last season when they first had to win in the play-in tournament was a reminder of the star players' confidence in an elimination environment. Just like Saturday night. The Lakers have had their ups and downs early in the season, in part due to player injuries, but this week was a callback to last spring.<\/p>\nFriday December 15<\/strong>All times Eastern<\/em><\/p>\n<\/aside>\nAustin Reaves scored 28 points coming off the bench, one of his best performances of the campaign. The length of Lakers defenders Cam Reddish and Jarred Vanderbilt could be a factor later this season. The Lakers also had a smart game plan, stifling Tyrese Haliburton with double teams and attacking the Pacers' weakness in defending the paint by relentlessly chasing shots and making 43 baskets in the lane.<\/p>\n
Haliburton might be on the other side of the superstar equation one day, but not today. He was stuck facing 26 double teams, robbing him of his ability to play with the downhill aggression that opens up his game and the Pacers' fearsome offense.<\/p>\n
Indiana's run in this tournament looked a bit like the Phoenix Suns' perfect 8-0 run in the 2020 bubble in Orlando, Florida. It signaled that the Suns were entering a new era and a year later they were in the Finals.<\/p>\n
Let's not anticipate anything with the Pacers, but it feels like they have entered a new phase.<\/p>\n
However, these are all details that fit the truth, which is that when James and Davis are healthy and engaged, the NBA's superstar principle applies, even if Saturday's win doesn't count in the rankings regular season official.<\/p>\n
\u201cHell of a double, and one or two could be either one any night,\u201d Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. \u201cAt the end of the day, they know how to take it to the next level when everything is on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LeBron James, Anthony Davis key for Lakers after NBA Cup win\u060c Brian Windhorst, ESPN senior writerDecember 10, 2023, 7:14 a.m. Close ESPN.com NBA writer since 2010 Covered the Cleveland Cavs for seven years Author of two books LAS VEGAS — The NBA Cup is new, but the lesson it taught was as old as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13996,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2176,40,4903,1252,2236,2036,3157,162,10],"class_list":["post-13995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-anthony","tag-cup","tag-davis","tag-james","tag-key","tag-lakers","tag-lebron","tag-nba","tag-win"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13997,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13995\/revisions\/13997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}