Lakers News: Anthony Davis' Tantalizing Preseason Already Making Waves

Your Los Angeles Lakers fell to a 2-3 record on their (meaningless) 2023 preseason Sunday when All-NBA stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, plus most of the rest of their Milwaukee Bucks, vanquished LA 108-97.

The big caveat: it was merely the preseason, and LA was sitting several key rotation players while Milwaukee played everybody not named Khris Middleton.

The Lakers sat All-NBA small forward LeBron James, starting shooting guard Austin Reaves, reserve point guard Gabe Vincent, and power forward Jarred Vanderbilt.

But they sure played the heck out of recently-extended superstar center Anthony Davis, who didn't disappoint in the game's first half (he was rested in the second).

AD scored 16 points on 5-of-8 field goal attempts (1-of-2 from three), pulled down seven rebounds, dished out five dimes, swiped two steals and blocked two shots.

NBA Twitter ("NBA X" sounds wrong), both the professionals and the amateur fans, was very excited about the emergence of The Brow this year.

Love to see Anthony Davis come out so aggressive… especially against my boy Giannis!!

I need AD to dominate even tho it’s just preseason lmaooo
— Raquel 🫶🏾 (@SOULbeautifulme) October 15, 2023

Another fan, however, is hoping Davis can do more when it comes to his outside shooting (which has fallen off a cliff lately).

There’s really no reason he can’t take 4 threes a game…I feel like that’s just a mental thing that keeps players from shooting it that much. It’s simply a 3pt a quarter. Players let their %’s or typical playstyles get in their way. Just let it go and feel confident.
— Unknown (@HereTheCope) October 16, 2023

To be fair, Davis is making 50% of his triple tries this preseason, on 2.5 attempts per. Across his three preseason games, AD is averaging 14.3 points across just 17 minutes a night, 6.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.3 blocks and 0.8 steals.

in case y’all don’t know

Anthony Davis is shooting 50% from the 3 in the preseason pic.twitter.com/MOndHF37sG
— † (@HoodiHachimura) October 16, 2023

Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated chipped in an interesting note, perhaps tipping his hand as to which newly-added Laker should start in the frontcourt along Davis.

A positive for the Lakers: LA was a plus-seven in the nine first quarter minutes Anthony Davis and Christian Wood played together -- most against the Bucks starters.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) October 15, 2023

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