With a 24-3 record and wins over multiple contenders, the Los Angeles Lakers have been great so far this season.
But when one digs beneath the surface a bit, there are signs that they could end up being more than that.
According to Neil Paine of FiveThirtyEight.com, LeBron James and Anthony Davis have been dominant to the extent of some of the NBA’s most legendary duos.
We’re talking about tandems such as Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
According to the website, both James and Davis are in the top 10 of wins above replacement, making the Lakers the only team with two such players.
FiveThirtyEight’s RAPTOR player ratings make the duo look even gaudier.
According to this metric, the Purple and Gold are currently just the 15th team since 1976 to have two players with a RAPTOR rating of a plus-5.5 or higher.
Their on-court net rating has also been beastly. The Lakers are outscoring opponents by 12.2 points per 100 possessions when James and Davis are on the court at the same time.
If the Lakers win the NBA title, the duo is sure to be lauded on the level of the other championship combos in Los Angeles basketball history.
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