Anthony Davis leaves the court after the Lakers’ 122-118 overtime loss to the Boston Celtics on Dec. 13 at Crypto.com Arena. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)
Anthony Davis slumped in his chair inside the Lakers locker room late Tuesday night, his knees wrapped in ice, his head bobbing at times, his lips pursed, the pain and despair registered on his face from having missed two key free throws with the game there for the taking for the Lakers over the hated Boston Celtics.
Davis clasped has hands together, closed his eyes and leaned his head back, his body still slouched. Lakers coach Darvin Ham walked over to his center and slapped Davis on the chest and offered words of encouragement.
Austin Reaves also came over and slapped hands with Davis, who then crossed his arms afterward. A few seconds later, Davis rested his head in his left hand.
There was nothing anyone could say to Davis on this night to soothe over his hurt feelings of letting the Lakers’ faithful down, his teammates down, himself down.
All Davis had to do was make his two free throws with 28.2 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the Lakers would have had a four-point lead. They would have pulled out a game in which the Lakers once trailed by 20 points in the third quarter.
But he didn’t.
And after Jason Tatum drilled a 15-foot fade-away with 17.8 seconds remaining in the fourth to tie the score, the Lakers went cold in the extra period and wound up losing 122-118 in overtime before 18,661 fans at Crypto.com Arena.
Davis had been stellar all game, his 37 points, 12 rebounds and three assists a big reason why they were in this game.
He had played a game-high 46 minutes, one second — and all 29 minutes of the second half that included the five-minute overtime.
None of that mattered to Davis.
“I haven’t thought about the rest of the game,” said Davis, who was 11 for 15 from the free-throw line. “Make two free throws, go up four, different ball game. To me, the rest doesn’t matter. Had a chance to ice the game and missed both.”
Davis had been in this position before, needing to make two free throws against the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night…
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