Lakers News: Anthony Davis Labored Through Back Pain For 37 Minutes In An October Loss For Some Reason
Four games into the Los Angeles Lakers' season, star big man Anthony Davis has already re-aggravated his first injury this year.
It happened last night, during the team's 110-99 defeat to the Denver Nuggets, when AD landed weirdly (as is his wont) while fighting for a board with Denver's two-time MVP center, Nikola Jokic. He held his lower back and was slow to return to action, but wound up finishing with an impressive stat line in the loss. Across 37 minutes, the 6'10" big man scored 22 points (on 11-of-19 field goal shooting), grabbed 14 boards, dished out five dimes, swiped three steals, and stuffed two blocks.
After the game, head coach Darvin Ham appeared to downplay the injury in his postgame remarks, noting that Davis was "fine" despite appearing to be visibly impacted by the ailment.
A reporter mentioned that Davis stayed in the game despite clearly feeling some discomfort once he re-aggravated the back.
"He's fine," Ham insisted. "He wouldn't have been able to finish the game... Getting that shot in the back, we all were a little nervous at that point in time. But he was able to get through the game and give us a lot of good production"
Davis provided a postgame update of his own last night to a group of gathered reporters regarding the status of the back:
Below, you can take a gander at the bulk of Davis's comments from the conversation:
"It feels good. I got hit in my back and [it was] kind of just irritated again, but I'll be fine... You just [have to] keep it loose. I'm gonna get irritated, but when I'm on the floor I [am] trying to focus on playing and not [be] worried about it."
Kyle Goon of The Southern California News Group reports that, although Davis claimed he would be able to suit up in the purple and gold tomorrow for L.A.'s bout with the jumbo-sized Minnesota Timberwolves, he has been officially listed as questionable to play tomorrow. Without the Brow, Los Angeles will have its work cut out for it tomorrow, as it will be facing off against a frontcourt that features two 7' 2022 All-Star big men in Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns. Though Minnesota is still sussing out its revised rotation, the team could feast on Damian Jones and Wenyen Gabriel, the likely center tandem for L.A. if Davis sits (Thomas Bryant is still recovering from thumb surgery).
Starting point guard Russell Westbrook, struggling through a left hamstring injury that has been an issue since the Lakers' final preseason game against the Sacramento Kings, is also questionable to suit up tomorrow, although his absence could actually abet the Lakers' ability to win.
The bigger question here is, why did Darvin Ham play a clearly-ailing Anthony Davis 37 minutes in a double-digit loss? Perhaps he was desperate to get a W on the board, especially against a much better team, but surely at some point in the fourth quarter he could have conceded that wasn't going to happen?
