LeBron James’ All-Star Performance Sends Warning to Anthony Davis

The Los Angeles Lakers came out with a 136-105 win over the Atlanta Hawks, and LeBron James‘ performance in the game sparked a scary takeaway from Anthony Davis after the game.

“Bron’s Bron, obviously it’s that time of the year, shooting the ball extremely well, been in attack mode finding guys, he’s been locking in defensively,” Anthony Davis said, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “It’s that time of year. Especially for us, where every game is a playoff game. So around this time of year, we get a chance to really lock in and get the job done.”

Anthony Davis on LeBron James turning up his level of play with 65 pts on 25-for-37 shooting the last couple games: “It’s that time of the year.” pic.twitter.com/XwhkLHRtqW

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) March 19, 2024

LeBron James has shot 25-for-37 in the last two games for the Lakers. This win over the Hawks was key for Los Angeles after losing the last game against the Golden State Warriors, who are one game back of the Lakers in the Western Conference standings. The two teams hold the last two spots in the play-in tournament as things currently stand.

Up next, the Lakers will host the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday.

Can the Lakers make another deep run this spring?

The Lakers made a run to the Western Conference Finals last spring, despite having to go through the NBA Play-In tournament. Based on the way things are going now, they will have to do the same thing this time around to make a run in the spring.

The Western Conference is arguably stronger than it was a year ago, which makes things more tightly contested from the top to the bottom.

While the Lakers will hope to stave off the Warriors down the stretch this season, they will look to chase down teams like the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings to try to get in to a top six spot and avoid the NBA Play-In Tournament. It remains to be seen whether or not that is possible for them.