Anthony Davis looking dominant as Los Angeles Lakers make playoff preparations

Weirdly, Sunday's version of Anthony Davis was not the version of Davis that fans have become accustomed to seeing. 

It's weird to say, but this season ⁠with the Los Angeles Lakers — Davis' first season coming off a championship ⁠— has been underwhelming.

He is averaging 21.9 points, his lowest point total since his sophomore season with the New Orleans Pelicans, way back in 2013-14. HIs 8.0 rebounds per game are a career-low, and his 1.8 blocks are tied for a career-low. And, for just the second time in his career, he's shooting below 50% from the field, clocking in at 49.8% this season.

In addition, Davis has played in just 33 of the Lakers' 68 contests this season, missing 30 games in a row at one point this season.

However, on Sunday night ⁠— after registering 36 points and 12 rebounds in a loss against the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday ⁠— the NBA world got to see the Davis of old, and with that, on Monday morning, the conversation began to ramp up once again: Can the Lakers pull off the repeat? 

Davis' performance sparked the debate because most pundits believe that a healthy Davis, mixed with a healthy LeBron James ⁠— more on that later ⁠— is key to L.A. pulling off its first repeat title performance since 2009 and 2010. 

Nick Wright, in full "The Brow" makeup, said as much on Monday morning's episode of "First Things First."

"This is a huge problem for the rest of the NBA because Anthony Davis hadn't been playing well, and now he has had, in back-to-back-to-back games ⁠— aside from the game against the Clippers where he got hurt ⁠— his best games of the season."

Before scoring 36 and 42 in back-to-back games against Portland and the Phoenix Suns, respectively, Davis played a little more than nine minutes against the LA Clippers this past Thursday before leaving the game with a tweaked ankle.

But on Monday of this past week, against presumptive regular-season MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, Davis scored 25 points and grabbed seven rebounds to help the Lakers end a three-game losing streak.

Still, despite Sunday's win over the Suns, the Lakers are 11-17 in their last 28, and much of that coincides with injuries to Davis and James, who has been battling a high ankle sprain he suffered March 20.

After missing 20 consecutive contests, James returned April 30, tallying 16 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in a home loss to the Sacramento Kings. He then put up 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists in a second consecutive home loss, this time to the Toronto Raptors, before once again being sidelined with soreness in the same ankle. 

While James has missed the past four games, on Monday, Yahoo! Sports' Chris Haynes joined Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe on "Undisputed" to give an update on James' status as the playoffs near, revealing that "The King" will more than likely be back on the floor this week.

Assuming James is close to full health come postseason play ⁠— the playoffs begin on May 22 ⁠— Sharpe said his confidence level regarding the champs' chances at repeating will creep closer to 10 on a scale of one to 10. 

But again, it's all about that ankle.

Bayless said that he was split on whether the Lakers can repeat, mainly due to the availability of James and Davis. 

"I'm 50-50 because you have two issues at hand: two injuries to your top two stars."

If James were to come back this week, it would presumably be in order to not only test out his ankle, but help bolster the Lakers' playoff positioning. 

Currently, L.A. sits in the seventh spot in the Western Conference, a game behind the Blazers for sixth and two games behind the Dallas Mavericks for fifth. 

With the new NBA playoff format, seeds seven through 10 in each conference are required to participate in the play-in tournament, meaning that if the season ended today, the Lakers would need to win a single game against the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors to earn a first-round matchup with the Suns.

And truthfully, that's another question for the Lakers: How daunting might facing Stephen Curry & Co. be for L.A.?

Curry has been red-hot in recent weeks, including dropping 41 on the New Orleans Pelicans and 49 on the Oklahoma City Thunder, raising his season average to an NBA-best 31.9 points per game.

With that in mind, Brandon Marshall said facing such a prolific scorer in a one-off scenario should raise some alarms for L.A.

But as Marshall's cohost, Wright, noted earlier, having Davis back at full force is a frightening prospect for any takers.

However the playoffs shake out this week, it's scary hours in the NBA.

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