“Without LeBron James, Anthony Davis needs to take 25 shots a game”: Shannon Sharpe loved the Lakers star’s dominant outing against Chris Paul’s Suns last night

Anthony Davis scored 42 points tonight, powering the Lakers to a morale-boosting win over CP3’s Phoenix Suns without LeBron James.

It’s been a long time since the Lakers have had competent guard play. They’ve managed to beat both top seeds of the Western Conference in the absence of LeBron James.

Dennis Schroder is ruled out effectively till the very end of this year’s regular season because of Covid protocols. The German guard was their de facto facilitator and scorer in the absence of LeBron and AD. But even without him, the Lakers came out with strength, passion and energy on offense.

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Anthony Davis underlined his first really dominant performance in many months with a 22-point first half. It was his assertiveness all game long that took the Lakers above their rivals, giving them a double-digit lead in the first half.

AD refused to cool down all night, taking 27 shot attempts and 17 free throws. It may not have been an uber-efficient by modern standards, but Davis bullying the Suns was a welcome sight.

Shannon Sharpe congratulates Anthony Davis for his exemplary night in the absence of LeBron James

As a diehard LeBron James stan, Shannon Sharpe must’ve been bracing for another defeat ahead of tonight’s game. His jubilation and relief at AD’s game-winning performance was quite apparent as he posted his thoughts on Twitter:

“That’s the Pelicans AD, take the game over as the best player on the floor. When Bron is out, AD should never have less that 20-25 shot attempts.”

The Lakers need to win 2 more games than the Blazers in order to evade the play-in tournament. This looks like a tall order on the surface, but the Blazers have some tough fixtures coming up.

Anthony Davis will need to continue asserting his dominance in the remaining fixtures for the Lakers to have any hope of evading the play-in tournament. LeBron might also be back for the final one or two games, but putting your hopes on his health seems to be folly right now.

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