LeBron: Being the 'focal point' is critical to red-hot AD

LOS ANGELES — After scoring at least 35 points in his second straight game to start the season, leading the Lakers to a 123-116 victory over the Phoenix Suns and a 2-0 record, Anthony Davis was asked if he could name two other Lakers. Greats match his fiery start.

It took him six wrong guesses — Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal, James Worthy and LeBron James — before he got one right.

“Jerry West?” asked Davis, aptly naming the Hall of Famer who opened the 1969-70 season with 39 points in the first game and 42 in the second.

James, standing next to Davis at his locker, helped the older man by helping locate the other.

“Elgin,” James said.

“Elgin Baylor,” continued Davis, who started the 1962-63 season with 71 points in his first two games, matching Davis' total.

It's been an eye-opening introduction for Davis, who at 31, and in his 13th NBA season and sixth with the Lakers, is finally positioned to take the torch as the team's best player.

“It's very important that he's the focal point for us every night,” James, 39, said after finishing with 21 points and eight assists. “We know what he's going to do defensively, but offensively we have to find him in multiple spots on the floor throughout the game. And we've done that through two games.”

James, a 22-year veteran, isn't exactly admitting he's slowing down. For proof, look no further than his response when asked if he would play Saturday in the second night of a back-to-back against the Sacramento Kings.

“I plan to play every match [this season]”We'll see what happens if I don't,” James said.

Davis, James and Austin Reaves (26 points, 8 assists, 3 steals) led the charge as LA bounced back from an early 22-point deficit against the Suns.

“What he's doing is kind of, it's unreal, obviously, but I expect him to dominate the game in a lot of ways,” Reaves said of Davis. “I'm lucky to have him as a teammate.”

And Lakers fans, it would seem, should feel lucky to have JJ Redick as their coach.

Before mentioning the last coach to lead a franchise to 2-0, one has to cross off many names like Davis — Darwin Hamm, Frank Vogel, Luke Walton, Byron Scott, Mike D'Antoni and Mike Brown — in 2010-11. Phil Jackson.

Redick, like the rest of the team, also credited Davis.

“There is an intentionality [Davis] Involved as much as possible,” Redick said. “We recognize the type of player he is and he can create mismatches. … There's a comfort level and a confidence level that he has that if the game starts to go bad, he knows the ball will come back to him. … Ball is going to find him.”