The Los Angeles Lakers’ 122-105 loss to the Denver Nuggets hit extra hard as the team faced a significant health scare with Anthony Davis in the second quarter.
Davis began limping after a drive on Nikola Jokic, and immediately grabbed at his right Achilles, which has given him issues this season. Davis, of course, missed two games just a week ago due to right Achilles tendonosis and the aggravation of the injury against the Nuggets was a scary moment.
While Davis did stay in to shoot and make the two free throws, he could barely move after and slowly limped off the court as the Lakers committed a foul to get him out of the game. The Lakers initially announced that Davis had suffered an Achilles strain and some swelling, but would undergo an MRI to determine the severity.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the results revealed a calf strain that will sideline Davis for at least two weeks:
Anthony Davis will be re-evaluated in two to three weeks after suffering a calf strain, source tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 15, 2021
Achilles injuries are always so dangerous as things can seem fine until suddenly it all goes bad. The fact that Davis had already been dealing with trouble before this latest setback only brought about more questions and prior Davis statements about not wanting to rest led some to believe he rushed back before he was ready. But Davis assured that wasn’t the case.
“It felt great in the first quarter,” Davis said following the game. “It felt great from the time I was in for the second quarter until the last play. So I think the way I just moved or stepped re-aggravated that injury, but I don’t think I rushed to come back.”
The Lakers training staff has tended to err on the side of caution in most cases with injuries over the last couple of seasons. There have been multiple instances with Davis, as well as others on the roster, sitting out games with minor injuries that they likely could have played through, but the team would rather not take the risk.
Due to Davis’ injury history, there are always questions and concerns on every move he makes, but now will be the time for him to rest until he is 100 percent healthy and you can bet the Lakers will make sure that will be the case.
Davis frustrated over setback
No one was more frustrated over the injury than Davis himself. Davis has been trying to shed the “injury prone” label he got while in New Orleans and last season seemed to go a long way, but now he has hit another setback. Even more frustrating for Davis was that this was the best he had felt since the achilles became an issue.
Today was the first day I felt completely fine,” Davis said. “I didn’t feel it at all this morning, afternoon, pregame, anything. … It’s more so frustrating that I’m not able to go out there and play. Like I said before, you don’t want to mess around with this type of injury.”
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