With just two games left in the regular season, the Los Angeles Lakers no longer find themselves in charge of their own destiny. The Lakers have lost their last two games as Anthony Davis dealt with an injury and now are in a three-way tie with the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors for the final three spots of the Play-In Tournament.
Davis is looking good to play in Friday night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies and the Lakers are certainly happy to have him back. For the second time in the past few weeks, Davis dealt with an eye injury after being struck in the face.
But the big man is ready to go now, and told everyone he is feeling phenomenal heading into the Lakers’ second to last game of the regular season, via Jovan Buha of The Athletic:
Anthony Davis said he’s feeling “phenomenal” at shootaround in Memphis today. He also clarified that his eye injury against the Timberwolves was different than the eye injury against the Warriors. He wasn’t directly hit in the eye this time but rather the eye area.
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) April 12, 2024
While the Lakers are in a three-way tie, they currently sit in 10th place as they lose the tiebreakers to both the Kings and Warriors after going a combined 1-7 against the two teams this season. But Davis insists the Lakers can’t focus on anything other than the games that lie ahead, noting that at the end of the day, they simply have to win games above anything else:
“I think we’re in a great place,” Davis said after shootaround Friday morning ahead of the Grizzlies game. “The two games that we lost, I played a quarter and then LeBron [James] didn’t play one. So there’s nothing we can really do about that now. Our job is to focus on these next two — the game tonight and then on Sunday against New Orleans — and then just kind of see what happens, where we stand after that. And then go win basketball games, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
“At the end of the day, no matter where you are in the standings, you still have to win. For us, it’s about taking it one game at a time. Whether that’s 10th place, ninth place, eighth, no matter where you are. You can be the first seed, you still have to win basketball games. So that’s our mindset. No matter where we are, we just got to win.”
The Lakers still have a chance to be as high as eighth in the West with a little help, but in order for that to happen they have to finish out the season with a pair of wins. Without that, nothing else matters so Davis and the Lakers must be locked in, starting in Memphis.
LeBron James: Impossible for Lakers to make up for Anthony Davis’ absence
Anthony Davis has been the Lakers’ most consistent player this season, staying healthy for the most part and truly being the focal point of this team on both ends of the court. And that’s why LeBron James and the rest of the team know that it’s basically impossible for them to make up for his absence.
“It’s hard for us to make up, especially having a guy like AD not playing,” LeBron said. “It’s pretty much impossible to make up for what he provides for our ballclub both offensively and defensively.”
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