Anthony Davis and LeBron James have been surprisingly healthy this year for the Los Angeles Lakers, but it still has not led to many wins as the team again is fighting for a spot in the postseason.
This is the healthiest the two stars have been during their time with the purple and gold, but the inconsistent play and health from role players has led to some struggles. However, it seems the Lakers are projecting upwards by winning four out of five games, which bodes well heading into the final stretch of the regular season.
There’s only two games left before the All-Star break, which is a back-to-back against the Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz. Both are winnable games, and Davis stressed the importance of taking care of business to head into the break feeling good about themselves.
“It’s very important. We’ve built momentum, even in the loss against Denver we learned some things about ourselves, closing the gap in the standings,” Davis said. “So it’s gonna be two big games for us, not just moving up in the standings but also going into the All-Star break, finish the first half of the season and go into All-Star with two wins, it will feel good when you’re waiting seven or eight days to play.”
Having over a week off for L.A. will allow for the team to mentally and physically rest before they gear up for a hectic final stretch fighting for playoff positioning. Davis hopes that this break allows for guys to get healthy and get some reinforcements out of All-Star weekend.
“First off it will give a chance for guys to heal and rest up and get healthy. Cam, Max, battling their ankles. Just lingering injuries that guys have and are playing through. When we’ve been healthy, we’ve been fine,” he said.
“It’s just two more games obviously, Detroit has been playing well despite their record, they’re in a lot of game, I think they won their last two… So they’ve been playing well and Utah is a team that’s been playing well all year, especially at home. So for us, it’s taking it one game at a time for these last two and then using the break to get healthy and come back ready to finish this last stretch.”
Injuries certainly have plagued the Lakers, but not to the point where it deters them from winning. The All-Star break is much needed for L.A. and hopefully players like Max Christie and Cam Reddish return to help this crucial finish to the regular season.
Anthony Davis credits Rui Hachimura ‘taking on the challenge’ defensively
Due to Christie, Reddish and Vanderbilt being sidelined, Rui Hachimura finds himself in a position where he is asked to become more of a defender. Davis commended Hachimura for ‘taking on the challenge’ defensively, where he is guarding an opposing team’s second or third-best player nightly.
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