Milwaukee Bucks bigs climb NBA Defensive Player of the Year Ladder 4.0

Anthony Davis has been on a bit of a block party of late with a string of 10 straight games with at least one blocked shot since Feb. 6, a streak that included a seven-swat performance in a win over the Grizzlies on Feb. 21 and six rejections in a Feb. 25 victory over the Pelicans.

Davis also matched a season-high on Tuesday with four steals in the Los Angeles Lakers‘ victory over the 76ers at Staples Center after sitting out a victory Sunday at New Orleans with a sore right knee. Davis trails only Hassan Whiteside of Portland, averaging 2.5 blocks per game. He’s also getting 1.5 steals per game, which is just off the career-best 1.6 he averaged last season.

While playing in nine of the Lakers’ 10 games since Feb. 8 — the last time the ladder was published — Davis averaged 2.8 blocks and 1.6 thefts in 33.6 minutes per game.

Defensive RAPTOR is the only one of the major defensive catch-all metrics that has Davis among the NBA’s best. He’s tied with Giannis Antetokounmpo for fifth in the NBA in that category.

Davis has never won Defensive Player of the Year honors, but is a three-time All-Defensive selection and has led the NBA in blocks three times, as well.