Sometimes we tend to match an excellent individual performance with the figures written on the scoreboard, but numbers don’t always tell the truth — or at least, not the whole truth. Take the case of Anthony Davis tonight: the Los Angeles Lakers big man is returned to achieve a triple doublesolo the second of his career after the one signed in 2018 with the New Orleans Pelicans shirt, curiously always against the Utah Jazz like tonight. Davis finished with 15 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists while also adding 4 blocks in the almost 40 minutes in which he remained on the pitch, figures that would normally be praised, but which are also counterbalanced by terrible 5/21 in shots attempted from the field and 6 turnovers committed, for a final plus-minus of -12. Davis, above all, failed to lead the Lakers to success by doing replacing LeBron James, out with a left ankle injury: perhaps this is also why after the match he was particularly harsh towards himself. “It’s all my fault, I didn’t do my job tonight” he said following the match. “We do everything that happens to us on our own: The turnovers, the poor execution, our lack of attention to detail led us to lose four games in a row. We had managed to fix a few things and win the last two, we showed we could do it over the course of the season, but it’s hard to accept the outcome when you hurt yourself so much. When other teams beat us, then you can accept the result, but not like that.”
Season high for D’Angelo Russell: “I don’t know what to think anymore”
Also D’Angelo Russellreinserted into the quintet in place of James, was unable to reverse the trend despite his season high of 39 points. “When our offense works, the defense doesn’t work. When the defense works, our offense doesn’t work. I really don’t know what to think at this point” said Russell, who returned to speaking to the press after avoiding interviews for several matches, evidently unhappy with his role in the team. The Lakers are now two games under 50% wins, slipping to eleventh place in the West and therefore out of the play-in zone, although the tenth-placed Houston Rockets are just one game ahead of them.