Getty Anthony Davis shoots over Herb Jones
Los Angeles Lakers star big man Anthony Davis was re-evaluated by doctors nearly two weeks ago, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Davis’ right foot was looked at and the foot “did not show significant healing.”
“Davis was reevaluated by Lakers medical personnel about two weeks ago after sitting out the second night of a back-to-back against the Oklahoma City Thunder,” McMenamin wrote on March 14. “His right foot, which caused him to miss 20 games earlier in the season because of a stress reaction and a bone spur that fractured off the navicular bone, did not show significant healing, sources told ESPN. The doctors stuck to the same recommendation not to put Davis at risk of a setback from overexposure by participating in back-to-back games.”
Davis played against his old team, the New Orleans Pelicans, on March 14 and was spectacular from start to finish. The Chicago native finished with 35 points and 17 rebounds while shooting 11-of-18 from the field, 1-of-2 from beyond the arc and 12-of-13 from the free-throw line. The Lakers defeated the Pelicans, improving to 34-35 on the season. They play again on March 15 versus the lowly Houston Rockets.
Anthony Davis Won’t Play Against the Rockets
Davis won’t play against the Rockets since he hasn’t been cleared to play back-to-backs. Los Angeles will have to find a way to defeat Houston without the Brow.
“He’s not going to play,” Lakers head coach Darvin Ham said after the Pelicans game. “He hasn’t been cleared. Even though he’s been playing pain-free, we made an organizational decision, starting with our team doctors, to hold him out of back-to-backs.”
The Lakers have to beat the Rockets to stay in the play-in tournament. Houston recently won against the Boston Celtics, so Los Angeles can’t sleep on March 15, especially since Davis won’t play.
“I mean it’s tough,” Davis said. “Especially (the) position we’re in. Obviously, you wanna go out and play, but before I even came back, it’s something the doctors and the organization discussed that they thought it would be best for me not to play back-to-backs because the foot, even though I’m not feeling pain and everything, it’s still an active injury with the stress reaction and everything and we’re doing all the right things to make sure that I’m ready to go.”
D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley Talk About the Rockets Game
Lakers guards D’Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley will have to take their games to another level against the Rockets since Davis will be out and the two veterans are ready to do that.
“It’s hard to get up for those games against people who are in the bottom half of the standings, but we know that this game doesn’t matter unless we win tomorrow,” Beasley said. “I think that’s the message going in and we can’t let up on them no matter what it is. We can’t get bored with success.”
Added Russell: “A lot of teams that didn’t win all season try to make up for it at the end of the year like this. You come in there with the wrong mentality, they’ll take advantage of it. So just try to have the right business approach going into the game is one thing I can control and then we’ll see what the game, opportunities present when the game starts.”