Lakers’ Anthony Davis: ‘It Was Masterful’ Watching LeBron James Drop 40 vs. Nets

After the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday (3/31), Anthony Davis spoke to NBA reporters about LeBron James‘ performance. 

LeBron dropped 40 points against the Nets while hitting nine 3-pointers. 

“It’s still surprising,” Davis said, via The Athletic. “Like I said, the way he was shooting them, the runout in the left corner on their side of the floor, I mean, he’s one-twoing into it, he’s hopping into it, he’s fading. I mean, he was doing everything tonight from the 3-point line. … It was masterful just to sit here and watch that. He got us separation.”

The Lakers defeated the Nets behind 40 points, seven rebounds and five assists from LeBron. The leading scorer in NBA history shot 13-of-17 from the field, 9-of-10 from beyond the arc and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line. 

LeBron is now averaging 25.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and 8.1 assists on the season while shooting 53.3% overall, 41.6% from 3 and 75.2% from the foul line. He’s 15th in the NBA in points, 13th in points per game, eighth in assists and sixth in assists per game. 

“My foot has felt a lot better,” LeBron said about his improved shooting. “I didn’t have much time to like really rep a lot last year because I had to make sure I could be on the floor running around or (not) putting much pounding of my foot on the floor. I’ve had a lot of opportunity to get on the floor. … And just trying to stay consistent with my shot, do the same shot every time. And just work. Just work work work work.

“I don’t ever have to lean on [3-pointers] because I can do so much — I can score on any level on the floor basically once I cross half-court. But being able to have a growth mindset and be able to work on things that the league is changing to, the league is a heavy 3-point shooting league.”

Added Lakers head coach Darvin Ham: “It’s incredible. I told him in the huddle before his last little stretch and we ultimately subbed him out. Just extremely thankful that he packed the cape on the road trip. Needed all nine of those 3s.”

The Lakers are 42-33 on the season. They are in ninth place in the Western Conference standings. If the season ended today, LA would face the Golden State Warriors in the 9-10 play-in tournament game. 

LeBron and Co. beat the Warriors in the second round of the 2023 playoffs in six games. However, Golden is 2-1 versus LA this season.