NBA Halloween: Playing trick-or-treat with each team’s early season trend
Los Angeles Lakers
Dwight Howard is the best frontcourt partner for Anthony Davis: Treat
As is the case with most of the trends on this list, four games is a microscopic sample size. However, the returns with JaVale McGee alongside Anthony Davis in the frontcourt vs. Dwight Howard and AD playing together are night and day:
My fun entirely too small sample size stat of the day -- through 4 games, here are a couple of 2-man lineup stats for the Lakers bigs:
— Darius Soriano (@forumbluegold) October 30, 2019
AD/JaVale: 61 minutes, OEff 90.2, DEff 96.3, NetRtg -6.1
AD/Dwight: 37 minutes, OEff 127.8, DEff 68.4, NetRtg +59.4
Maybe McGee makes more sense as the starter for the time being, but for all his length and shot-blocking, he lacks the defensive instincts that a three-time Defensive Player of the Year like Howard brings to the table. Even with D-12’s athleticism nowhere near what it once was, he and Davis have established an immediate chemistry, especially on defense.
Against the Memphis Grizzlies, the Los Angeles Lakers closed the game on a 61-26 run and Davis finished with 40 points and 20 rebounds. What shouldn’t be lost in the shuffle, though, is how Howard’s insertion into the lineup in the third quarter is what triggered that monster finish, and how his defensive intensity around the rim helped the Brow save energy for his free-throw marathon. Come playoff time, Davis at the 5 will be the Lakers’ best option. But for now, Frank Vogel needs to consider giving more ample minutes to this Davis-Howard tandem.