Earlier this week, after the Los Angeles Lakers lost their opening game of the N.B.A. playoffs to the Portland Trail Blazers, Anthony Davis found himself the object of LeBron James’s attention. Davis had struggled for the Lakers on Tuesday night in Game 1 of their first-round series, so James gave him a pep talk.“I didn’t feel like I performed to the level that I needed to, and he let me have my moment and kind of get on myself,” Davis said, “and then he talked to me and said I was fine. He said it was one game, and as a guy who’s won multiple championships and been in these situations before, he knows what to expect.”By Thursday, in the long hours ahead of Game 2, James knew enough to leave Davis alone.“He didn’t say one word,” Davis said. “He kind of knew. He saw the look on my face from the beginning.”James has played with supremely talented teammates over the course of his career, winning championships with Dwyane Wade in Miami and another with Kyrie Irving in Cleveland. But there are certain things that Davis can do — equipped as he is with his 6-foot-10 frame and his tap-dancer feet — that are nearly peerless.The Lakers are chasing a championship, and Davis’s performance in their 111-88 win over the Blazers on Thursday night was one that his team needed. He finished with 31 points and 11 rebounds in just 29 minutes. He drained three of his four 3-point attempts. He also played suffocating defense as the Lakers won their first playoff game in — wait for it — eight years.“A.D. is one of those unicorns,” James said.The Lakers had been scuffling along through the league’s restart at Walt Disney World, playing a brand of basketball that was mediocre at best: porous defense, lackluster shooting. And to be clear, their touch from the perimeter remains a concern. On Tuesday, they shot just 14 of 38 from 3-point range, which actually counted as progress.But they still employ Davis and James, and those two can compensate for many flaws.“When you put in the work, the results will happen,” James said. “If you didn’t put in the work, that’s when you get worried.”In some ways, it was one of James’s more muted postseason efforts. He finished with 10 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds. But he also looked and sounded more animated than he had since the Lakers arrived in the bubble. He screamed at virtual fans in an empty arena. He pleaded with the officials. He encouraged his teammates, reminding them that they were “built different.”“We played with a sense of desperation,” Davis said.Afterward, James pointed to the season that the Lakers had endured, rattling through the various events — some tragic — that had befallen them. There was the Lakers’ preseason trip to China, after which James waded into a geopolitical storm involving a rival general manager. There was the death of Kobe Bryant in a helicopter crash. There was the coronavirus pandemic that suspended the season. Even now, the Lakers are without Avery Bradley, their top perimeter defender, who opted out of the restart, and Rajon Rondo, who broke his thumb but appears to be nearing a return.“And so on and so on,” James said. “It just feels like three or four different seasons.”James has been cagey about his experience in the bubble, alluding at one point to an off-the-court distraction. In an interview with TNT this week, he declined to elaborate other than to say it had nothing to do with the Lakers. At the same time, he has been vocal about social justice issues, and posted a series of photos of himself reading Malcolm X’s autobiography.But there is basketball, too, and James recognizes the opportunity in front of him: How many more will come his way? With Davis, the Lakers have a chance.“He’s been staying in my ear about everything, especially through the playoffs right now,” Davis said.The game could not have gone worse for Portland. For weeks, they had been the restart’s most captivating attraction — beginning with their spirited run through the seeding games and continuing through Game 1 of their series with the Lakers. No player had been more dynamic than Damian Lillard, who had 34 points and 5 assists in Tuesday’s win.On Thursday, though, Lillard was still on the court in the midst of a blowout when he reached out to try to strip the ball from Davis — a hustle play that had consequences. Lillard, who shoots with his right hand, grimaced as he left the game with a dislocated left index finger. He finished with 18 points while shooting 1 of 7 from 3-point range. Los Angeles outscored Portland by 29 points when Lillard was on the floor, but he was not the only player on his team who looked exhausted.As for his injury, Lillard said he would be back for Game 3 on Saturday.“Oh, I’m playing,” he said.For his part, James offered up a lot of the usual postseason platitudes: that it was only one game, that the Lakers were not getting ahead of themselves, that they had merely focused on executing their “game plan.” All of which was true, of course.But they also leaned on Davis to deliver a message: that the Lakers are not about to go away quietly. More
