NBA FINALS: LAKERS VS. HEAT

October 5, 2020

Anthony Davis

Los Angeles Lakers

Practice Day

Q. Anthony, I wonder when you watch tape of a game when you don't feel like you played your best, how do you take that? When you're watching, how do you feel about it emotionally and how do you think that affects things moving forward?

ANTHONY DAVIS: It sucks just because you know if you play well and had done your job, then you possibly could have won the game. It always sucks when you lose, and especially when you don't play well. You know, you look at tape and you try to figure out ways to be better to get prepared for next game.

Q. AD, you mentioned yesterday that there just wasn't communication defensively. When you look at the tape, where did that allow Miami to hurt you guys the most?

ANTHONY DAVIS: You can't really tell if someone is communicating on film, but you can tell, if you kind of get what I mean. You can tell we wasn't. We were off in our coverages. They were setting screens and slipping to the rim without no one guarding them. We were over-helping. We were having blown coverages. There was a lot of space on the floor for guys to drive to the basket with no resistance, no help. Guys were hung up on their man. You could tell that we weren't ourselves defensively.

We have to be a lot better. We can't allow easy points. The game is already hard enough. Teams are going to make tough shots, but we can't allow them to get easy looks at the rim when no one is guarding them or not helping our guys, if a small is on Jimmy or a big is on a guard and knowing that their chances are pretty high that they're going to blow by them. We've got to protect each other. We have to help each other, and that wasn't the case last night, and a big reason why we lost.

Q. AD, I'm sure great players have off-nights and great games, too, and at home I'm sure shaking off whatever happened is a really important part of moving forward to the next day. How different is that process here in a place where you're surrounded by your coaches and your teammates, there's basketball everywhere you look? Has that changed how you process both the highs and the lows of playing at this level?

ANTHONY DAVIS: Well, the good thing for me I'm not a big social media guy, so I have it but I don't really be on it. I'm very disciplined to not, especially after nights like last night. A lot of people get caught up in the news and the social media and what everybody is saying. But I don't really care about it too much.

I want to see my coaches. I want to see my coaches. I want to see my teammates because I know they're going to tell me how to get better for next game; prepare me the right way so I don't have a repeat of last night. I want to be able to see these guys and talk to them and figure out the game plan for tomorrow night.

I know it's always beneficial to get away and kind of forget about it, but when you're here, you have to embrace that. You can't, like I said, you can't really run from it. And so I lean on my coaches a lot here and my teammates a lot here to kind of help me through the process.

Q. Does having your family in the bubble change that process at all of sort of getting over a game like last night?

ANTHONY DAVIS: For sure. Like you said, when you go back home, if this was a regular scenario, you would go back home and see your family, things like that. So, you kind of just take your mind away from the game. And having my family here, it definitely helps. But it's still hard to sleep. It's still hard not to think about. Even though it takes the edge off a little bit, you're super eager to just get back on the floor and get ready for the next game.

But I think my family being here definitely helps me tremendously.

Q. There was one point in Game 2 where you scored on like three straight put-backs. I know that's not something that's very normal, but last night they kept you off the boards pretty well. What changed there where you couldn't create those extra possessions and things like that?

ANTHONY DAVIS: I think they did a good job of trying to keep me off the offensive glass. That's an energy and effort thing. Being in foul trouble, sometimes you go in there and you get called for an offensive foul over the back or whatever the case may be, so I just didn't want to pick up any more stupid fouls. I think I had three stupid fouls last night that could have been prevented. But I didn't want to go in and create another foul on myself and then I had five or four, whatever the case may be and I had to sit on the bench again.

Just trying to play smart, but at the same time knowing when to go in and crash and look for those offensive rebound opportunities.

Q. When you're coming off a loss or like you mentioned a performance yesterday that you obviously want to play better, how much do you start looking forward to the next game, and how much does it help that the turnaround is so quick to get back on the court?

ANTHONY DAVIS: You look forward to it. You want to go out there and play well. You want to go out there and help your team win. And it's a good thing that we're playing every other day, because like you said, the turnaround is so quick so you're able to go out there and get right back to it.

So you watch film, you figure out what you can do better, and you want to go out there and try to make all the adjustments and be better than you did last game. So I'm excited that we play tomorrow night, to go back out there and help my team try to go up 3-1.