Injury reports from LeBron James and Anthony Davis
With Anthony Davis returning from injury and LeBron James suffering one in the opening quarter of the Lakers’ come-from-behind win on Friday, both players gave injury updates to the media postgame.
The Lakers are already battling with many injuries to important players on their roster just a few weeks into the season. On the injury front, there was both good and bad news in Friday’s come-from-behind victory over the Phoenix Suns.
LeBron James was driving to the basket when he was fouled by Kevin Durant at the 4:22 mark of the first quarter. After the play, James appeared to be hobbling and having difficulty putting weight on his left leg. During the game, the injury appeared to be particularly alarming because there appeared to be no impact in that region to produce an injury. And, considering James’ age, a catastrophic injury may be career-ending.
Thankfully, James was able to brush it off and continue to be his superstar self, finishing with 32 points on 11-16 shooting and a team-high 36 minutes played. After the game, James went into depth about what happened on that play that made him uncomfortable.
“I was driving and awkwardly (hit) KD’s knee and, at the force I was going, it went right into my shin which pretty much locked up right then and there and shot down to my foot.” James stated. “So I just tried to keep my cool, make sure I was okay, and try to keep it as stretched out and loose as possible so I could play the game and be effective.” Obviously, I’m really sore right now since the adrenaline is settling down. I’ve iced it and everything, so it’s very sore now.”
Without James healthy and available this team’s potential plummets. The Lakers have wanted to limit James’ minutes partly to reduce the wear and tear on his 38-year-old body. So far, that hasn’t been the case.
James is playing 35 minutes per game this season, up from 35.5 previous season. To me, that does not appear to be an emphasis on a minute reduction. So, while it appears that James will be fine after his injury last night, it will be something to keep an eye on in the coming games and a reminder of how fragile things are for James and the Lakers. If he gets injured, Los Angeles’ chances of winning the championship this season are jeopardized.
Anthony Davis is the only player on this team that is even remotely as valuable as James. Davis returned for the Lakers’ first NBA in-season tournament game, after missing much of the second half against the Heat and the game against the Rockets due to a hip spasm.
He ended the night with 18 points and 11 rebounds and tied with James for most minutes on the Lakers with 36. Despite the solid performance, Davis did feel like there was an adjustment period early on.
“It took some time to kind of get into the game just with the shots and stuff, just trying not to aggravate it,” Davis said after the win. “But as the game got going, I just stopped thinking about it and just started playing. I felt it a couple times over the course of the game but for the most part, it’s good.”
While fans can exhale over injury scares and finally enjoy a road win, things aren’t all sunny in Southern California. These are, without question, the two most important players on the Lakers roster and the fact they are already dealing with injuries and still having the highest minutes played is concerning. This roster was supposed to be catered around the two stars, allowing them both not to require Herculean efforts to rack up victories.
So far, they’ve had to do that in virtually every victory on this 4-5 start. Hopefully, as the roster gets closer to being fully healthy and players like Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves find their rhythm and place, the vision of what this roster was projected to be will be realized. For now, it’s good that the Lakers won and both stars appear to be okay.
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