LOS ANGELES — Lakers star big man Anthony Davis is out for Sunday’s game against the Washington Wizards with right foot soreness.
Davis injured the foot in Friday night’s 126-108 win over the Denver Nuggets and did not return after halftime.
Davis appeared to tweak his right foot after his lower leg collided with Nikola Jokic‘s leg while the two were in midair near the basket in the first quarter.
A source familiar with Davis’ injury told ESPN that Davis is experiencing discomfort in his right foot, but there is hope he did not suffer anything severe. He was likely set to undergo an MRI for further evaluation.
Lakers coach Darvin Ham said Davis received X-rays at the arena, and the team would know more about his status on Saturday. Davis left for the night without speaking to reporters. The Lakers announced Davis would miss Sunday’s game on Saturday evening.
“I don’t want to speak on it until I know exactly what’s going on,” Ham said. “I’ll know more tomorrow.”
Davis subbed out of the game with 2:40 remaining in the first quarter to receive medical attention and returned in the second quarter, but was largely ineffective — scoring zero points on 0-for-1 shooting with one rebound and two turnovers in eight minutes. Thomas Bryant started in his place to begin the third quarter.
He finished with 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting, four rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes.
After missing more than half the Lakers’ regular-season games over the last two seasons, Davis had appeared in 24 of L.A.’s 27 games this season coming into Friday, however the Nuggets game marked the second time in the last 10 days he started a game and was unable to finish it. Davis played just eight minutes in Cleveland during the Lakers’ recent road trip before exiting with a fever and cold symptoms.
In Davis’ absence, L.A. stepped up for one of its most complete team wins of the season. The Lakers had seven players reach double-digit scoring, led by LeBron James‘ 30 points. James, who turns 38 later this month, became the oldest player since Michael Jordan in 2002 to score 30 or more in three straight games, according to research by ESPN Stats & Information research.
Bryant (21 points on 9-for-11 shooting) and Patrick Beverley (10 points on 4-for-6 shooting) both reached season highs in points. Austin Reaves scored 16, Dennis Schroder scored 15 and Russell Westbrook had 15 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds to notch his second triple-double off the bench this season, the most a Lakers’ substitute has ever recorded.
“Just trying to do whatever I can to make the person next to me better,” Westbrook said. “Whatever is asked of me, I’m doing it. Whether it works or not, I’m just doing the best I can with the position that’s given to me.”
Still, the possibility of missing Davis was impossible to ignore when discussing the win over a Denver team ranked third in the West at 17-11 and led by Jokic, the back-to-back MVP.
“I mean obviously, health is always first when it comes to any of our teammates,” James said. “And it doesn’t change with AD. And that’s the most important. So when we know something, we’ll go from there, but we wish the best of news, for sure.”
As good as Friday’s win felt, especially coming on the heels of L.A. blowing a 13-point fourth-quarter lead against Boston on Tuesday, the thought of potentially playing without Davis for any stretch of time isn’t something the Lakers are prepared for.
“No, because we haven’t done it,” James said. “Our team is built on having pretty much everyone. So, we’ll make the adjustment accordingly, but we haven’t done it, so we don’t know what that would look like.”
Source: www.espn.com