The Los Angeles Lakers are getting set to take on the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday. It will be Anthony Davis’ first game back in New Orleans after the off-season trade that sent him to LA. But while all eyes will be on Davis who left the team on poor terms, he is quick to point out that the emotions of the game will be about more than his return.
Wednesday’s game also gives an opportunity for Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart to play against their former team for the first time. The trio of young Pelicans were traded in exchange for Davis.
Davis, via the LA Times’ Tania Ganguli:
“It’s two-fold,” Davis said of the game Wednesday. “I mean, it’s going to be me against the Pelicans and then the three guys, if they play, against the Lakers, so it’s going to be a great battle. Those guys are going to try to take our heads off just to prove a point, and I don’t want to say I want to take their heads off. I just want to win it.”
It will obviously be a hostile environment in NOLA for AD on Wednesday and the former Lakers won’t make it any easier. Short of Josh Hart’s accidentally published diss of his former team, the trio has been mostly quiet about the trade. But given the environment it caused last season, it’s clear that there are some hard feelings that they will want to clear up on the court.
