Anthony Davis has been able to avoid significant injuries so far this season, but he will sit out due to right foot soreness when the Los Angeles Lakers host the Washington Wizards on Sunday.
It will be only the fourth game Davis has missed this season, but the Lakers haven’t yet pinned down the severity of the injury.
Davis has been injury-prone over his previous 10 seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans (seven) and Lakers (three), averaging just 60.4 games per season. Los Angeles surely is hoping the current ailment doesn’t lead to a substantial absence.
Davis injured the foot during Friday night’s 126-108 home victory over the Nuggets, apparently when he collided with the leg of Denver star Nikola Jokic while both players were in the air.
The eight-time All-Star is enjoying a solid campaign with averages of 27.4 points and 12.1 rebounds in 25 games.
Fellow star LeBron James said after Friday’s game that he’s hoping it will be a short absence for Davis.
“I mean, obviously, health is always first when it comes to any of our teammates,” James said. “And it doesn’t change with A.D. And that’s the most important. So when we know something, we’ll go from there, but we wish for the best of news, for sure.”
James poured in 30 points against the Nuggets, his third straight game of scoring at least that many points. He is averaging 32.7 points during the span.
Three reserves had big games for the Lakers against Denver. Thomas Bryant scored 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting, Austin Reaves had 16 points and Russell Westbrook contributed 15 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds to extend his career triple-doubles record to 196.
“Just trying to do whatever I can to make the person next to me better,” Westbrook said afterward. “Whatever is asked of me, I’m doing it. Whether it works or not, I’m just doing the best I can with the position that’s given to me.”
Meanwhile, nothing is going right for Washington, which has lost a season-worst nine consecutive games and 12 of its past 13.
The Wizards held a 15-point lead with less than four minutes remaining in the first half on Saturday before falling 102-93 to the host Los Angeles Clippers.
The contest was the sixth straight without star guard Bradley Beal (hamstring), which prompted the Clippers to focus their defensive effort on slowing big man Kristaps Porzingis.
Porzingis scored 19 points but was just 8 of 19 from the field. He fell one point shy of his 10th consecutive 20-point outing.
“They were fronting me, they did a really good job with that, and then they were doubling,” Porzingis said afterward. “So there were all kinds of bodies they were seeing, and I think a lot of those situations when we did get the ball in, we got some pretty decent looks. But it was definitely one of the toughest games I’ve had, the way they were guarding.”
Kyle Kuzma added 17 points and had his streak of 20-point outputs snapped at six. He said he didn’t think the Wizards did a good enough job of moving the ball in the second half.
The accompanying evidence agrees: Washington shot 57.1 percent from the field with 15 assists during a 57-point first half. In the second, the Wizards shot 28.6 percent with just five assists while scoring 36 points.
“We fell in love with trying to find mismatches instead of just moving around and passing and cutting and playing how we did in the first half,” Kuzma said.
Washington has won 13 of the past 19 meetings with the Lakers.
–Field Level Media