{Video Courtesy: ESPN}
ORLANDO, Fl. – In Anthony Davis’ 7 seasons in New Orleans, a playoff appearance, let alone a playoff run, seemed like a tall task.
Davis’ time in New Orleans would come to an end in June 2019 after the franchise agreed to a blockbuster trade that would send the superstar to the Los Angeles Lakers where he would play alongside a generational talent like Lebron James.
Over a year later, Davis is preparing for his first NBA Finals appearance.
The Lakers were one of the hottest teams in the NBA with a 52-19 record before the pandemic put the NBA season and his chance at a championship on hold.
The move to the Orlando bubble revived those hopes and after tough series wins over the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets, and Denver Nuggets, Davis is just hours away from his first-ever NBA Finals appearance
He talked about the experience with media on Tuesday, saying “It’s special. It’s been a crazy year.”
Davis added, “For us to continue to be a step closer to our dreams, to reach our goals, it’s special. I think our team has been through the most this year, and we just kept on pushing, kept on fighting. With everything that’s been going on, I kind of think the hiatus was actually good for us. It kind of just let us regroup because we had such a crazy year. The Lakers had such a crazy year. Now we want to make sure that we finish this thing off right. Our team is a team that handled adversity this year. We’ve been resilient. And now we feel like it’s our jobs to finish the season off the way we wanted to start it, the same way we wanted to start it. We’re four wins away from that, and it seems like it’s all just come full circle.”
Davis and the Lakers have a tall task ahead of them with the Miami Heat, a scrappy bunch that has defied the odds in each and every playoff series.
Davis knows that the Heat will not be an easy out because of NBA All-Stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, someone he will have plenty of face-time with during this series.
“Yeah, Bam is a great player. Bam is a lot like Jokic. He handles the ball a lot, pushes them on the breaks for them, he makes great passes, scores. He’s like their energy guy as well. So, it’ll be fun. Two Kentucky guys. Coach Cal probably texted and called me enough about that. But it’s going to be a fun matchup. I know a lot of people are looking forward to that matchup. It’s going to put, I think, whoever wins that matchup, their team will probably have a better chance of winning the series. But he’s developed so much since coming out of college and even last year, he was able to do so much for that team. That team leans on him a lot. I think it was Game 4 where he took that pressure, and took the blame for not playing well, and ended up losing. And he comes out in Game 5 and almost had a triple-double. For a guy to be in his second year, he wants that pressure, wants the big-time moments, wants to make the big-time plays for his team, it’s going to be a fun matchup.”
Game 1 of the NBA Finals starts tonight at 8 p.m. on WGNO.
