Lakers Injury Report: Latest On Anthony Davis’ Eye Ahead Of Must-Win Warriors Game
Will All-Star Los Angeles center Anthony Davis suit up against the Golden State Warriors' tiny front line tonight, in a battle of play-in tournament pseudo-contenders?
Time will tell, but the Lakers seem to be hopeful that he'll be back in time to help the team, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. He was hit by Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kyle Anderson in the first quarter of a 127-117 Saturday loss, and soon left the game for good. With Davis missing most of the game, backup big man Jaxson Hayes did what he could to fill in down low, scoring 19 points while shooting 8-for-9 from the floor and pulling down 10 boards.
“I just couldn’t see,” Davis revealed. “The corneal abrasion was actually right in the middle of my eye. It wasn’t like off to the side. So anytime I looked it was blurry. My eye was swollen. I thought my eye was like, [torn] open. But it wasn’t. It kept watering. It just felt like sand was in my eye.”
Davis had previously hurt his eye during a 128-121 defeat against the Golden State Warriors on March 16th. The injury got to the point that his eye swelled shut. It does not appear, at least, that such is the case with the current injury.
“He’s extremely valuable,” head coach Darvin Ham remarked of the 6'10" big man. “Everyone around here knows that. Everything he brings on both sides of the ball, it’s tough. Already being without (LeBron James) and seeing him go out, it’s tough. But my hat’s off to our guys. They didn’t feel sorry for themselves. They kept competing all the way through.”
At 45-34, the ninth-seeded Lakers are still just 1.5 games behind the sixth-seeded Phoenix Suns (46-32) for a shot at avoiding the play-in tournament bracket entirely. The 43-35 Warriors, meanwhile, are 1.5 games behind the Lakers. A Golden State victory and Lakers loss could put LA at risk of slipping into the tenth seed by the end of the year.
