Who Scores More Points: Anthony Davis or Devin Booker? UPDATE: Davis Outscores Booker
By Peter Dewey
UPDATE: Anthony Davis dropped a season-high 42 points to lead the Lakers past the Suns123-110 on Sunday night. Booker scored 21 points for Phoenix on just 14 shots, but Davis hit 13-of-27 field goals and 15-of-17 free throws to lead all scorers. What follows is the original report from pregame.
Prior to the 2020-21 NBA season, a Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns first-round playoff matchup would not have been surprising with the Lakers expected to command a top seed in the West.
But oh, how the tables have turned.
The Suns are currently the West’s No. 2 team while the Lakers are fighting to avoid the dreaded NBA Play-In Tournament, as they currently come in at the No. 7 spot in the West.
The Lakers’ first opportunity to climb back into the top six with just five games to play comes against Phoenix on Sunday night. LeBron James won’t play once again, so Anthony Davis will take on as much as he can handle against Devin Booker, Chris Paul and company.
Davis scored 36 points in the Lakers’ loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday, but does he have what it takes to outscore Booker on Sunday night? Vegas thinks so.
AD’s player prop projection for points on Sunday is set at 24.5, but WynnBET has the eight-time All-Star’s over (-120) as the clear favorite to the under (+100). The same can’t be said for Booker, who’s points projection is set at 25.5 with the over a small underdog (-105) to the under (-115). Vegas is essentially saying its 50-50 for Davis and Booker to score 25 or more points.
Booker had been red hot before playing the New York Knicks on Friday night. He was held to just 16 points on 3-of-12 shooting in that one, which ended his four-game streak of scoring 30 or more points. Granted, the Knicks have the No. 4 defensive rating in the NBA, but things won’t get any easier against Los Angeles, which has a 106.7 defensive rating, best in the league.
Coming off the best game he’s played since returning from a calf injury, Davis looks to build on two solid performances (he had 25 points against the Denver Nuggets) without LeBron in the lineup. Davis also played against the Clippers on Thursday, but he was limited to just nine minutes and left the game with back spasms.
Davis played 39 minutes in the loss to the Blazers and will likely need to be out there just as much as possible on Sunday for the Lakers to upset the Suns. There’s always a concern that Davis could get banged up and the Lakers will hold him out, but he’s averaging 21 shots per game when he’s played the full game without James and is shooting 50 percent from the floor in those two contests.
Both players are elite scorers, but we like Davis in this one because of the volume of touches and shots he should receive. Booker isn’t going to have as many easy buckets against a tough Lakers defense and he may not even need to score much for Phoenix to win.
There may be plenty more of these matchups to base this rivalry off in the future if the Lakers and Suns do end up meeting in the first round.