The NBA has honored Los Angeles Lakers All-Star center Anthony Davis as its Western Conference Player Of The Week, the league announced. Brooklyn Nets All-NBA forward Kevin Durant was named the league’s Eastern Conference Player Of The Week.
Over that timeline, Davis has averaged 37.8 points on .652/.625/.857 shooting splits, 13 rebounds, and 3.3 blocks per game, while his team has gone 3-1.
Thus far for his 11th NBA season, the 29-year-old superstar is averaging 28.6 points while shooting 59% from the floor and 83.2% from the free-throw line, a league-leading 12.8 rebounds, 2.6 dimes, 2.4 blocks, and 1.4 steals per contest.
AD has almost singlehandedly turned his team’s fortunes around through his unreal play of late. Ever since LeBron James went down with a left adductor strain suffered late in an eventual Clippers loss and had to miss five games, the keys to the kingdom were essentially turned over to Davis. Davis, no doubt in collaboration with first-year head coach Darvin Ham, adjusted his shot profile. His jumper appears to have more or less permanently abandoned him (although he did go 2-of-3 from long range yesterday!), so Davis is now primarily a two-way beast inside the restricted area.
He is taking 66.9% of his field goals within 10 feet of the basket this year, by far a career-high. It’s made a massive impact on his efficiency as a scorer. Davis has scored at least 24 points and pulled down at least 10 rebounds for his past 10 consecutive games (ie since James went down initially, but also including his output since James returned). The Lakers have gone 7-3 in those last ten games with a healthy Davis.
If Davis can keep this up, and the rest of the team continues to gel around him, he may start racking up a few more Player Of The Week honors, as he begins to play himself into the 2023 MVP discussion.
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