The Los Angeles Lakers picked up their first win of the season on Friday night. In an absolutely wretched game, the Lakers were able to defend their home court and take down the Utah Jazz, 95-86. Neither side shot particularly well from the field, there were a whole lot of turnovers, and in somewhat of a deviation from what some expected, Anthony Davis played a decent amount of center.
This is a bit of a surprise, as Davis was clear during the offseason that he does not like playing the five. His strong preference is to line up at power forward, which is why he starts next to JaVale McGee and will take the floor with Dwight Howard sometimes. But against perhaps the best defensive big man in the league, Davis spent the second half at center and influenced the game on both ends of the floor, ending the evening with 21 points, seven rebounds, and five blocks.
After the game, Lakers coach Frank Vogel said that this was not a spur of the moment decision he made. Instead, Davis wanted to line up at the 5.
“Anthony and I talked about it, and he was all for it and wanted to do it,” Vogel said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Davis, meanwhile, softened his tone a bit on where he’d like to play, admitting that he is more receptive to the idea than he sounded during the offseason.
“If it makes sense, then obviously I don’t mind doing it,” Davis said. “And it made sense tonight.”
Battling Rudy Gobert is a big ask for any center due to his size and defensive prowess, but there aren’t many players who are able to stop Davis from putting his fingerprints all over a game when he’s locked in. Plus, as McMenamin noted, this let the Lakers replace one of their big men with reserve guard Alex Caruso, whose speed gives the team something different from the slow, plodding pace that comes from playing Howard or McGee.
It stands to reason that Davis still won’t play a ton of center this regular season, and time will tell if he ends up doing that more frequently once the playoffs roll around. But as we saw on Friday night, having him line up there can give the Lakers a boost when they need one.
