3 reasons to believe the Lakers are for real after comeback win over the Suns

The NBA season is a grind, with ebbs and flows that can cause even the best teams to question themselves. It's rare that a team can pull off what the Boston Celtics did last year when they dominated pretty much nonstop from Opening Night until they were handed the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

For most teams, or at least those that aren't engaged in some form of tanking, there are winning streaks and fallow periods throughout the year, with the lesson being not to get too high or too low based on just a few games.

It's easy to say that, but it's another thing to begin the season with two wins against contending teams. That's what the Los Angeles Lakers have done, first by handling the defending Western Conference runner-up Minnesota Timberwolves on Opening Night, then by coming back from 22 points down to overcome Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns.

Lakers fans are justifiably excited after such a promising start. While conventional wisdom would say that it's extremely unlikely that a 47-win team could suddenly become a championship contender just one year later (especially when he roster is almost exactly the same), there are reasons to believe that the Lakers might be able to keep this up.

Anthony Davis is taking no prisoners

At 6-foot-10, Anthony Davis is literally and figuratively the biggest reason to believe that the Lakers are set to join the Western Conference elite. After enjoying the healthiest season of his career and winning a gold medal with Team USA at the Paris Olympics, AD is playing like a man on a mission through the season's first two games.

Despite sharing the court with LeBron James, Anthony Edwards, Durant, Booker and Bradley Beal, Davis has clearly been the best player on the court in both games. On Friday night he put up a 35-8-4 line on the Suns — impressive to be sure, but with Phoenix's lack of post defense, it would be understandable if someone wasn't too impressed.

Davis may have destroyed the perimeter-oriented Suns, but he was even better against the Timberwolves on Tuesday. Minnesota was the number one team in defensive efficiency last year, but Davis went over, around, and through four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert en route to a 36-16-4 line.

Davis has always felt a bit like the Robin to LeBron's Batman, but that dynamic seems to have shifted this year. He became the first Laker since Kobe Bryant in 2005 with back-to-back 30-point games to open the season, and he's playing like a guy who knows that this is his team. His aggression has paid off, as he's already been to the line 32 times in two games. That rate may be unsustainable, but Giannis Antetokounmpo led the league with 10.7 free throw attempts per game this year. With Davis' diverse offensive skill set and apparent embrace of being the go-to option, there's no reason he can't eclipse that number.

Davis' ability to dominate against two very different teams and styles of play bodes extremely well for the Lakers. If he can stay as healthy as he did last year, we could be looking at an MVP kind of season.

After a dismal outside shooting performance on Opening Night, the Lakers showed that they can rain 3s with the best of them

One of the reasons Lakers fans were excited about JJ Redick becoming the team's new head coach is that he would emphasize the importance of the three-point shot. Redick made his living at Duke and his many NBA stops as a sharpshooter, and his "new-school" mentality was a welcome change from former head coach Darvin Ham's archaic approach.

In the modern NBA, 3-point shooting is more directly correlated with winning and losing than any other stat. The Celtics, last year's NBA champ, shot more 3s per game than any other team. The team they beat in the Finals, the Mavericks, shot the fourth-most.

The Lakers grabbed the 7-seed in the West last year and were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. The fact that they did that while shooting fewer 3s per game than every other team in the league is a testament to the talent on the roster, but it also represents the team's ceiling if something didn't change.

What's most perplexing about the Lakers' reticence to shoot from the outside last year is that they were actually pretty good at it. L.A. ranked ninth in the league with a 37.2 3-point percentage, but Redick has promised that under his leadership, the Lakers will modernize their approach and let it fly from outside more often.

It may take some time for Redick to really make his mark and get the team to chuck it with more abandon, but after a worrisome 5-30 performance from outside against the Timberwolves, his Lakers bounced back by making over 50% of their 3s against the Suns.

No Laker made more than one three against Minnesota. Against the Suns, LeBron, Rui Hachimura, Dalton Knecht and Austin Reaves all made at least two. This counts as progress, and a reason for confidence going forward. We know this team can make them, they just need to be willing to take them. Expect more going forward.

Austin Reaves is ready to become the true third banana the Lakers have needed

LeBron made Third Team All-NBA last year. Davis made the Second Team. You would think that having two of the top 15 players in the league would be enough to be in championship contention, but that wasn't the case, because beyond LBJ and AD, the Lakers didn't have anyone else that they could consistently count on to play at an All-Star level.

Lakers fans will hate the comparison, but just look at the Celtics. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are two of the top 20 players in the league, but they have tons of help from the rest of the roster. Jrue Holiday is an outstanding two-way player. So is Derrick White. Kristaps Porzingis brings a ton to the table.

To make some headway in the West this year, the Lakers need someone to step up and share the load with LeBron and Davis. If Friday night's game is any indication, Austin Reaves is ready to fill that role. Davis was undoubtedly the player of the game, but with 26 points, four rebounds, eight assists and three steals (while shooting 8-12 from the field and 5-7 from three), Reaves wasn't far behind.

Now in his fourth season, Reaves has raised his points and assists totals every year since joining the Lakers as an undrafted free agent out of Oklahoma in 2021. This helped him earn a four-year, $53.8 million extension last summer.

As the Lakers' best option on the perimeter, Reaves stands to benefit the most from Redick's coaching. LeBron and Davis can't do it all by themselves, but if Reaves can improve like he has every year, they won't have to. His play against the Suns shows that he's ready.