On January 28, Beijing time, the NBA regular season Lakers against Philadelphia, this battle James due to knee injury rotation, Davis is the second consecutive game, together with Wei Shao to start.
But there were some sudden accidents in the first quarter of the game, Davis left the court injured, and at one point the Lakers fans were in a cold sweat, but then Davis returned to the locker room to check and treat and quickly returned, but his hands were wrapped in bandages.
It is worth mentioning that this injury did not affect Davis's competitive state in this game, and he completed strong play under the basket many times in the first quarter, or showed a strong personal state in the case of Embiid. After half-time, Davis scored 23 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks on 10-of-13 in 17 minutes, replacing James in supporting the Lakers' offensive output. For comparison, Embiid, who has been gaining momentum lately, has 13 points and six rebounds on 5-of-11 halftime stats. However, Philadelphia relied on the team advantage of 9 players and 9 players to take a 54-48 lead after halftime.
For the Lakers, Davis can maintain excellent competitive form is the best news, in the past month, due to Davis's injury, the Lakers have been in difficulties at both ends of the attack and defense, in a state of uneven personnel for a long time, the interior line was once unavailable, and James was needed to act as a center. In the last game, Davis came back, from the perspective of protecting the players, Davis only played 25 minutes, 3 of 8 and scored 8 points and 2 rebounds, which is obviously not the normal level of Davis, and it can be 10 of 13 in the half when he is against MVP hot Embiid, which is the real level of Davis.
After Davis's comeback, the outside world has rekindled hope for this Lakers, and the Lakers' famous name Ci Shiping bluntly said that after Davis' return, the Lakers have an 80% chance of winning the championship. This statement is slightly exaggerated, but it is enough to reflect the role of Davis on this Lakers, James's offensive end is still the peak state, the defensive end of the performance decline is also a fact, Davis is the only key player in this Lakers team that can affect the team at both ends of the attack and defense, with the presence of Davis, the Lakers are called the championship level team.
At present, the Lakers are 24 wins and 24 losses, have fallen out of the top eight in the West, ranked ninth in the West, at the point where they need to play playoffs, less than half of the remaining season, the Lakers need to come back in, strive to impact the top six rankings, the nuggets of the sixth sixth at this stage, the Nuggets, the Lakers are still 2.5 wins away, there is definitely a chance to catch up, pursue a better regular season ranking, avoid encountering an absolutely strong team in the playoffs in advance, then the Lakers still have the possibility of counterattack, and the possibility of impacting the championship.
(Lin Xiaoxiang)