Los Angeles Lakers superstar Anthony Davis exited the team’s Christmas Day thriller against the Golden State Warriors early after suffering a fluky ankle injury. Davis appeared to turn his ankle on itself during game action. He tried to play through it but ultimately had to miss the majority of the game due to a left ankle sprain.
Luckily, the Lakers went on to win in last-second fashion even without Davis. LeBron James was stellar and Austin Reaves had one of his best games — including the game-winning layup in the final seconds — to overcome not having Davis in the lineup. But even in the ecstatic victory, concern remained about Davis’ ankle.
But the superstar center does not appear to be worried in the slightest. In fact, he made it clear he plans to be in the lineup for the Lakers next game against the Sacramento Kings on Saturday, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN:
Anthony Davis to ESPN: “I’ll be OK. I am playing against SAC on Saturday”
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 26, 2024
Davis has only missed one full game this season, and that was due to a heel issue that seems to have been resolved quickly. But with the Lakers center situation being the way that it is right now, Davis missing any amount of time would be an almost impossible pill to swallow.
The Lakers have handled the Kings three times already this season and would love earning a season sweep on Saturday. It would certainly be more difficult if Davis was out of the lineup, as Domantas Sabonis would have little to no resistance from putting up a monster outing.
But it seems Davis is okay and it was just wanting to be cautious on the night of an injury. He appears to be confident that he’ll do whatever needs to be done to be healthy enough to play on Saturday night.
Anthony Davis expecting teams to exploit recent issues
The Lakers have been among the better teams in the league at taking care of the basketball this season. On the year, they rank No. 8 in the NBA in turnovers per game and No. 8 in turnover percentage. Anthony Davis has been the spearhead of that, as he does not rank in the top 50 in turnovers per game despite being 15th in usage percentage among players with at least 15 games played.
But as of late, the Lakers have fallen victim to carelessness with the ball in their hands. They’ve lost a few games due to high turnover numbers, including Monday night against the Detroit Pistons. L.A. couldn’t handle the physicality of Detroit’s roster, coughing up the ball 20 times leading to 29 Pistons points.
Davis spoke about the turnovers, saying that he knows that it’s not a winning formula for the Lakers to turn the ball over as often as they have been recently.
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