Los Angeles Lakers big man Christian Wood revealed a warning that teammate Anthony Davis sent him before the In-Season Tournament title game against the Indiana Pacers on Saturday.
“I think A.D., he was at Level 1 and took it to Level 3,” Wood told ESPN. “He told me before the game, ‘This is Game 7 for me, I’m going to show you what a Game 7 is like.’ I’ve never been in one before. I said, ‘All right, show me.’ And he went out there and he got 40 and 20. That’s incredible.”
Wood did not play against the Pacers, but as he alluded to, Davis put together an incredible two-way performance. He finished with 41 points, 20 rebounds, five assists and four blocks across 41 minutes of playing time. Plus, Davis shot 16-of-24 from the floor and 9-of-13 from the free-throw line in a game the Lakers went on to win by a final score of 123-109 to win the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament championship.
Austin Reaves also starred for the Lakers. In 28 minutes off the Los Angeles bench, he dropped 28 points, two rebounds and three assists while shooting 9-of-15 from the field and 10-of-12 from the charity stripe.
Conversely, Tyrese Halliburton and Bennedict Mathurin led the Pacers in scoring, seeing as how they each scored 20 points. The former also dished out 11 assists for Indiana.
The Lakers’ In-Season Tournament win over the Pacers doesn’t count towards their regular-season record, but the team still owns an impressive 14-9 record, which is tied for the fourth-best record of any team in the Western Conference at this juncture.
Los Angeles is four games back of the Minnesota Timberwolves — who own the best record in the NBA at 17-4 — for the top seed in the conference. But the Lakers are just a game back of the Oklahoma City Thunder for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.
Lakers fans are surely encouraged by the fact that Davis showed out in arguably the team’s most important game of the season to this point. Hopefully for Davis and the Lakers, he can carry over his excellent play from Saturday’s matchup into the team’s upcoming games.
The next game on Los Angeles’ regular-season schedule is against the Dallas Mavericks on Dec. 12. After playing the Mavericks, the Lakers will then play against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs — who have lost 16 games in a row — on Dec. 13.
