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00:00 LeBron James has played with some incredibly talented players in the NBA, but recently
00:05 said Anthony Davis ranks among the best teammates he's ever had.
00:09 LeBron said, "AD is one of those unicorns, and he does things that some of my other great
00:13 teammates are not capable of doing."
00:16 Joining me now is SINBA writer Rohan Edkarni and Lakers reporter Melissa Roland.
00:20 Rohan, I'm going to start with you here.
00:22 How key is Anthony Davis in this Lakers playoff series against Portland right now?
00:28 I think he's incredibly important, Maddie.
00:30 I think you've seen the Lakers kind of go up and down with his performances at times
00:34 during the season.
00:35 But specifically with this matchup, you know, Portland, I don't really think, has the kind
00:39 of player that you need to guard Anthony Davis.
00:42 Hasan Whiteside and Yusuf Nurkic, frankly, are a little bit too slow.
00:45 And I think when Anthony Davis is kind of taking it upon himself to be aggressive, be
00:50 that lead scorer LeBron's talked all year long about making him the number one guy,
00:54 it makes the Lakers a lot better team.
00:56 And specifically when it comes to Portland, these are just matchups that Anthony Davis
01:00 is highly capable of dominating.
01:03 And Melissa, I mean, covering this team as thoroughly as you have, what is it about this
01:06 relationship between LeBron and AD that's so special?
01:09 And how have they kind of built this camaraderie that could help the Lakers get their first
01:13 championship in 10 years?
01:15 Madeline, they're very close friends.
01:17 These guys hang out all the time off the court, go to each other's homes, grab late night
01:22 glasses and wine together after games.
01:24 And after game one, when the Lakers were upset by the eight seeded trailblazers, AD was very
01:30 down on himself.
01:31 He acknowledged that he was very upset and LeBron pulled him aside, gave him a pep talk.
01:36 And then before game two, he actually did not speak to him all day.
01:40 He looked at AD's face and thought that was what he needed.
01:43 And AD said after the game that that was exactly what made the difference for him.
01:47 AD exploded, had an incredible game, scoring over 30 points in less than 30 minutes, becoming
01:52 only the third Laker in NBA playoff history to do that.
01:57 That is an incredible stat to have because the Lakers have a lot of NBA playoff history
02:01 right there.
02:02 Melissa Roland, Rohan Nukarni, thank you so much for taking the time.
02:05 Thank you.
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