Lakers News: Stat Helps Prove Anthony Davis Is Best Defender In These Playoffs

But does Nikola Jokic care?

Your Los Angeles Lakers will have their work cut out for them today when they square off against the Denver Nuggets. LA is hoping to defend its homecourt, Crypto.com Arena, after losing both opening games of its ongoing Western Conference Finals series against the Nuggets.

Though stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis disappointed a bit on offense in Game 2 of the series, Davis has remained an impressively intimidating defensive force for Los Angeles.

To wit, StatMuse has revealed just how much AD is impacting the game in at least one measurable way: his total stocks (combined steals and blocks) through the first two games of the Western Conference Finals.

As you'll see below, Davis' 66 stocks puts him miles ahead of his closest competition, Boston Celtics center Al Horford (James is a distant third):

Most stocks this playoffs:

66 — Anthony Davis
[gap]
48 — Al Horford
33 — LeBron James pic.twitter.com/qPoU1IJyyV

— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 19, 2023

Davis isn't just great at recording steals and blocks (he's averaging 3.2 blocks and 1.5 steals through his first 14 games of the playoffs), his impact on the floor as a deterrent around the rim was probably the single most decisive factor in LA's unexpected second round upset of the reigning champion Golden State Warriors.

It took three-and-a-half quarters for Darvin Ham to figure out how best to use Davis in this series. Though he's a solid man-to-man defender against most bigs, he wasn't really able to do a ton to stop Denver center Nikola Jokic, who beyond being able to score all over the floor is also an exceptional passer. 

Midway through the fourth quarter of Game 1, Ham switched Rui Hachimura onto Jokic, shifting Davis to a roaming role around the interior (well, technically Davis was guarding Aaron Gordon, but Gordon mostly has been relegated to putbacks in this series) to dissuade non-Jokic players from driving. In Game 2, Ham opted to have James, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Hachimura defend Jokic while Davis manned the middle. 

It almost worked.

LA will get its next chance to snag a very, very necessary home win tonight at 5:30 p.m. PT.

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