The best of the week in Lakers basketball

For the most part, last week spelled trouble for the Los Angeles Lakers. They lost their first back-to-back games of the season, the latter of which came against a lowly Detroit Pistons team.

This week was a return to the norm for them. They went undefeated while holding two of their opponents under 100 points.

In honor of their bounce-back week, we decided to hand out Best of the Week Awards with the help of our friends at Microsoft. Congratulations to all of the winners — this is a prestigious honor.

Game of the Week: Beat Boston

Listen: I am fully aware that weeks technically start on Sunday. In most countries, weeks even start on Monday. But given the fact that the Lakers only played two games this week, I had to bend the rules a little bit.

And as great as the win over the Nuggets was, I mean, a one-point game against your bitter rivals that was decided by a stop on defense? What other game could I possibly give this honor to?

Player of the Week: Anthony Davis

Anthony Davis hasn’t been his usual self to start the season, and he’s even admitted so himself. But this week he started to resemble what he recently referred to as “the old AD.”

Davis’ week started with a stellar performance in a rivalry game against the Boston Celtics on Saturday, in which he recorded 27 points, 14 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks. He followed that up with an efficient scoring night (25 points on 10-14 shooting from the field) against the Atlanta Hawks.

What sealed this honor for Davis, though, was his play against the Denver Nuggets on Thursday. Against Nikola Jokic, who’s one of the favorites to win the MVP Award this season, Davis tallied 13 points (on 5-8 shooting), 9 rebounds 3 steals and 2 blocks while holding Jokic to 13 points on 6-16 shooting from the field.

Davis hasn’t had it every night this season, but he’s had it on the nights that have mattered, which makes the Lakers’ game against the Brooklyn Nets on Feb. 18 all the more exciting. Oh, and the postseason, of course.

Play of the Week: Fly Bald Eagle, Fly

What if I told you that Alex Caruso had his first dunk of the season against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday? Would you believe me? If you answered no, I wouldn’t blame you; Caruso built his following in large part due to his emphatic dunks, so it’s unimaginable to think it took over 20 games for him to get his first dunk.

However, as unimaginable as it may be, it’s true: Caruso recorded his first dunk of the season on Monday, which is why he’s our “Play of the Week” honoree:

Caruso also deserves recognition for his lockdown defense against Jaylen Brown in crunch time on Sunday:

More often than not, Caruso isn’t going to make SportsCenter’s Top 10, but he had a few highlight plays that deserved some recognition this week.

Tweet of the Week

This is a tough one. On one hand, you have Kyle Kuzma calling out the people that say he doesn’t play defense, which, for the past year, hasn’t been the case at all. On the other, you have LeBron James calling the fan that famously yelled at him on Wednesday “Courtside Karen.”

Considering Kuzma’s tweet was deleted, we have to give this one to James. It helps that James’ tweet has well over 100,000 retweets. We don’t know what Kuzma’s would have had by now, but it’s safe to assume that it wouldn’t have been 100,000.

Is there anyone that was deserving of an award that didn’t get one? Let us know in the comments below!

This sponsored post was published according to our guiding principles. For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.