Lakers News: Anthony Davis Tormented By Bungled Free Throws
On Tuesday, your Los Angeles Lakers let the visiting Boston Celtics brutalize them with a barrage of buckets, at one point in the third quarter falling behind by as much as 20.
But L.A. was resilient. Mostly riding a lineup comprising All-NBA center Anthony Davis and All-Star power forward LeBron James, reserve wings Troy Brown Jr. and Austin Reaves, plus sixth man Russell Westbrook, the Lakers managed to fight their way all the back to an even keel with the Celtics. Though it seemed to overextend their energy, clearly head coach Darvin Ham just didn't quite trust his other players to do much damage against a switchable sharpshooting club at the level of Boston.
It did seem that Davis, at least, was feeling the fatigue (or the pressure?) near the end of regulation. With the Lakers leading by two, 110-108, AD could have put the team up by four points, a tough margin for any team to make up for with just 28 seconds left. Instead, the 6'10" big man missed both his free throw looks and the Celtics scored in the succeeding possession thanks to a crazy and pretty much un-guardable near-baseline jump shot.
"I haven't thought about the rest of the game," Davis is quoted as saying, per Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. "To me the rest doesn't matter. Had a chance to ice the game and missed both."
Davis has overall proven to be a pretty solid shooter from the free-throw line thus far this season, nailing 82.4% of his 8.3 tries from the charity stripe. But of course, late-game pressure situations like Tuesday night are generally more intense than, say, less meaningful free throws in a second quarter. So what does AD need to do to drown out the noise between the ears and just make these shots? Here's hoping he figures it out soon.