Whether it’s Anthony Davis’ dominance, Max Christie’s struggles or a potent bench lineup, there’s plenty to discuss from a fantastic unbeaten start to the Lakers season.
After a great win on opening night against the Timberwolves, the Lakers clawed out two more victories on both ends of a back-to-back, first coming back from a 22-point deficit before handling the Kings with a LeBron James-led 21-0 blitz to start the 4th quarter.
The Lakers, then, are 3-0 for the first time since the 2010-11 season when Kobe and Pau led the way on the court and Phil Jackson paced — or, really, sat in his elevated chair — the sidelines. The Lakers have cycled through seven coaches since then, finally landing on JJ Redick and his obsessive attention to detail that has clearly made inroads with an almost identical group of players who just a season before began the season 1-2.
As Anthony Davis said after Saturday’s win over Sacramento, however, this is a different Lakers team and they’re intent on showing the league just that. And, if they rack up a few more when they venture out on their five-game road trip, they may just start making believers out of more folks.
Before then, though, here are five (mostly positive) observations about the Lakers through these open three W’s.
Dominant AD
There are not enough superlatives to describe Anthony Davis’ play to start the year, but he’s playing like one of the very best players on the planet and is putting up numbers that place him next to some of the all-time greats to ever play for the Lakers.
Against the Wolves, he was dominant on both ends, scoring 36 points and grabbing 16 rebounds while blocking three shots and just wreaking havoc defensively. Against the Suns, the rebounding was not quite as great, but the buckets still were as he poured in 35 more points to go with two more blocks and a steal.
And then against the Kings it was 31 more points, nine more rebounds, two blocks and three steals. He’s also tallied 10 total assists in the three games, connected on two of his five three-point attempts, is shooting 57.1% from the field overall and is punishing teams in the paint en route to 15 free throw attempts per night.
I don’t know if Davis will continue to score this well — much of that will depend on the rate in which his jumper goes in and whether he can continue to go to the foul line this much — but what I can say is that this is who he’s been as a player for well over a year now. His numbers are up because he’s getting more chances, which is directly related to this coaching staff being very intentional in how they’re trying to use him and AD’s teammates following through on those plans.
But don’t mistake this sort of productivity to him being back to some previous version of himself. No. This is who Davis has been for some time now.
LeBron feeling his way through
Through three the season’s first 11 quarters, it would have been fair to wonder if LeBron was starting to show a bit of a decline as he approaches his 40th birthday in his 22nd season. He was not as consistently creating advantage in the post or via drives, was missing more shots in the paint than what we were used to seeing, and, despite a few highlight plays, looked a bit less explosive than he did even just a couple of months ago at the Olympics.
And then LeBron detonated 16 points in a shade under three minutes of game time and turned an entire game around basically by himself. Which brings me to the larger point; LeBron may indeed be showing more signs of his age, but I’d argue those signs are as much about him holding things back and understanding the risks of trying to call on those aspects of his game too frequently rather than his game diminishing in real ways when he’s dialed in and looking to make an impact.
Said another way, LeBron looks as much like a player who is feeling his way through these games and measuring out exactly what he thinks is required in any given moment rather than someone who has taken any sort of large step back as a player.
And maybe that’s obvious. Or maybe it’s easier to say after the sort of explosion he showed against the Kings. Either way, it seems clear to me that Bron is willing to try to do less or, more accurately, is willing to try to do it with less physical output rather than push the envelope.
Austin’s leap, a year later?
Austin Reaves enters the 2023-24 season as the Lakers third-best player and someone who, if you just started to rattle off random achievements in which each advancing one the prestige or plain old difficulty jumped up a level, I wonder how far we could get before we absolutely ruled it out.
I mean let’s try…
Austin Reaves has a 50/40/90 season (last season he was 52.9/38.9/86.4)
Austin Reaves averaged 6+ assists a game (last season he averaged 3.4)
Austin Reaves averaged 18+ points a game (last season he averaged 13.0)
Austin Reaves makes the All-Star team
That last one feels like a real stretch, but the other ones feel well within the realm of possibility. And, let me tell you, if Reaves averages 18 and 6 on 50/40/90 shooting the Lakers are going to be a damn good basketball team. And if the Lakers are that good, that final one doesn’t feel too far out of reach either.
I wrote the above a little over a year ago in the season preview capsule for Austin Reaves. And while Austin had a good 2023-24 season, he fell short of every statistical benchmark I laid out.
Make no mistake, averaging 15.9 points and 5.5 assists on 48.6/36.7/85.3 shooting splits is damn good. It’s just not the leap some of Reaves’ more optimistic supporters believed were totally on the table for him.
Well, it may just be possible that the leap that I thought could come last year is here now. Yes, it’s only three games, but Reaves’ current averages are 18.0 points and 6.0 assists on 55.3/43.8/71.4 shooting splits. Basically, he’s reaching every level I said he could hit last year, save for his free throw percentage.
There’s a comfort and confidence Reaves is playing with, too, that is palpable. He’s clearly in really good shape and has his legs under him.
But beyond that, he is playing with a command of his own game and of what is being asked of him within the team’s offense that is translating to his own production and to that of his teammates. He’s also back to playing defense more consistently, showing the sort of grit, hustle, and attention to detail that were critical parts of how he carved out a role as a rookie under Frank Vogel.
Max’s struggles
If Austin is looking sharp to start the year, Max Christie is on the other end of the spectrum, particularly on offense. Again, with all sample size caveats being acknowledged, Max has opened the year hitting just two of his first eight shots, including one of his first six three-pointers.
He’s a team worst minus-42 in the box score, which isn’t all on him. But part of the struggles of those groups is that they cannot score, which is at least related him him not hitting shots and his offense within the team structure being a bit clunky.
He’s sailing post entry passes, has taken some quick trigger threes, has forced some drives and, in general, his playmaking and ball handling just isn’t to a level where he looks ready to do much offensively besides shoot a spot up jumper or catch the ball on a cut where he can try to finish with force at the basket.
On the flip side, his defense has been well ahead of his offense and he’s been at worst neutral and, on several possessions, very good. He’s run into some foul trouble at times, but he’s staying attached to his man, is mostly doing a good job to contain the dribble at the point of attack, and is really working hard to pick up the ball full court, navigate screens, and exert pressure in his individual matchup.
So, it’s not all bad with Max, and I’d argue that his defense should continue to give him chances. That said, it would be really nice if his offense came around soon. And it would be even nicer if he was not looking to create as much off the dribble and was just a bit quicker in his decision making when it came to shot/pass choices, including how and where to move the ball when the initial jumper is not there.
This is stuff that will come with more time and reps, and it’s important to remember Max’s general lack of experience here, but a good game soon would go a long way for him.
On fire bench group
In the Lakers win over the Kings, the five-man group of D’Angelo Russell, Dalton Knecht, LeBron, Rui Hachimura and Jaxson Hayes was utterly fantastic in both their shifts, with their fourth quarter time together totally turning the game around and putting the Lakers back in control after going down by seven. That group was a +31 in just 9 minutes of game action, outscoring the Kings 37-6 during that stretch.
For the season that group is a +33 in 19 minutes, so they’re “only” a +2 in the 10 other minutes they’ve played together. And while that number pales in comparison to what they did against the Kings, I don’t think it should be ignored that these very early returns are showing a Lakers lineup that is succeeding without Anthony Davis on the floor when he gets his normal rest in the second and fourth quarters.
This is no small thing and, if it can continue, would be a wonderful and much-needed lineup solution for parts of the game in which the Lakers can struggle, particularly on defense. Because while it’s clear this unit is going to make noise offensively, it’s their ability to score that helps set up their half court defense where they have a lot of positional size and a lot athleticism with Bron, Hayes, Rui, and Knecht. This group can switch, they can really get out to the perimeter to contest shots and then they can rebound to push the ball in transition.
Against the Kings, it wasn’t just the insane shot making from Bron that stood out, but it was how often they were able to play in the open court, how LeBron attacking in transition was aided by the spacing those shooters created and how Bron could then leverage that spacing to either get to the rim himself or spray the ball out to them for open shots.
Yes, the sample is small, but that group did serious damage vs. the Kings and showed what type of ceiling they can have when they’re firing on all cylinders.