The Lakers were not pleased with the results of Sunday's loss to the Knicks at the Crypt, particularly Anthony Davis who put the blame squarely on his shoulders. He pledged to do better next time, and that he did. Davis was central to LA's big early run in New Orleans on Tuesday. They put up two touchdowns before the Pelicans were even on the board. At one point, the Lakers were up by 40. It was almost too big a lead, because the Lakers clearly got complacent and had to scramble a little more to hold on than they should have.
Davis finished with 35 points on 11-18 shooting, with 17 rebounds. Malik Beasley broke out of his slump in a big way, hitting 7-10 from 3-point range in the first half. D'Angelo Russell was solid (if inefficient), as were Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura. It was one of those nights, growing more common, where the Lakers look like they have real depth that can match up with a lot of teams.
There's also a much, much more positive energy around the group. Some of that is a byproduct of winning. Some of it is personnel and context. But it's palpable.
The big question was if the Lakers could steal enough time back from this game to allow Davis to play tonight against Houston. Then there was the concern that needing to put Davis back in the game might prevent him from playing. Turns out, he was never going to. Darvin Ham reiterated that Davis still isn't cleared for back-to-backs, and while he's pain free, it's an "active" injury and the Lakers aren't going to break from the plan they devised when Davis returned from injury.
Nor should they.
And the Lakers should still win tonight.

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: The Lakers are playing with a much better energy, and took it to the Pelicans on Tuesday.

SEGMENT 2: Anthony Davis kept his promise... and the Lakers are sticking to the medical plan.

SEGMENT 3: The bench is legitimate.

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