One Extremely Pretty Bucket From Anthony Davis's 46-Point Game

Understandably, James Harden’s 57-point detonation of the Memphis Grizzlies and the Boston Celtics’ ongoing weirdness were the main stories of last night’s NBA action. In the background, though, Anthony Davis went off on the Clippers, dumping 46 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and a block on their heads and carrying his Pelicans, for whom pretty much the whole rest of the season will function as one long playoff run, to a badly needed four-point road win.

Pretty much the entire splendid smorgasbord of Anthony Davis Stuff is here, of course: the freakish athletic range; the less freakish but nevertheless still quite nice shooting range; the patient, heads-up post game, now more than ever also featuring crafty passing to cutters and shooters; those times when he just kinda engulfs a bunch of lesser mortals under the basket, hauls in an offensive rebound he has no business getting, and muscles the ball back up for a bucket; and, delightfully, a few whole possessions played with only one shoe on. I’d like to call your attention to the possession that begins at around 0:35 of the above video, a little two-man game between Davis and reserve guard Frank* Jackson. It’s lovely, and one of my favorite buckets of the season so far.

Oh man. Those devilish little touch passes. This is extremely my shit. The final pass, back to Davis from Jackson, after the bounce pass that leads Jackson into the lane, isn’t quite on the mark; Davis has to reach back to corral it, and that’s probably the only reason this sequence doesn’t end with a dunk. It’s the only demerit on this pretty little basketball play. Nobody’s perfect, and neither is Frank frickin’ Jackson.

*CORRECTION: Good grief, I had him as “Fred” on this blog and never even noticed it until a reader pointed it out in an email.