The Los Angeles Lakers are humming along this season to the tune of a 21-7 record, trailing only the red hot Utah Jazz in the Western Conference. The NBA superstar duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis has proven to be an imposing one again. However, things could be turned into a one-man show for an extended length of time.
Anthony Davis missed two games last week with soreness in his Achilles. He returned against the Memphis Grizzlies, scoring 35 points on 16-of-27 from the field, which was a season-high in shot attempts. He added nine rebounds, one assist, two steals and one block, looking like his regular self. Unfortunately, he was not yet back to being his regular self.
Davis experienced some soreness in the Achilles but suited up in the team’s next game against the Denver Nuggets. He made it through less than 15 minutes of playing time before being removed from the game. Now, the Lakers could be without their star big man for the foreseeable future.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Davis re-aggravated his right Achilles tendonosis and swelling was present and later mentioned he is ‘extremely unlikely’ to return before the NBA All-Star break. David J. Chao, The Football Doc, believes that a shutdown for Davis is imminent. Based on the severity of the swelling, Davis could miss a few weeks, if not months of action.
This would be a huge blow for the Lakers. Replacing someone of Davis’ caliber for a few games, let alone a few weeks or months is virtually impossible to do. On the season, he is averaging 22.5 points, 8.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.3 steals in 32.8 minutes per game.
No one player on the Lakers’ roster is going to replicate those stats. It is going to take a complete team effort to try and replace Davis for as long as he is sidelined.
Expect Markieff Morris to be re-inserted into the rotation, possibly even into the starting lineup. He has started two of the five games that Davis has missed this season. The other three have been started by Kyle Kuzma, another player who will have a heavier load to carry with Davis sidelined. The versatile Talen Horton-Tucker could also see an uptick in minutes.
As long as LeBron James is in the lineup, the Lakers will be a difficult team to beat night in and night out. Head coach Frank Vogel will have a delicate balancing act to pull off now, however.
Vogel cannot afford to burn out James before the postseason, but in the super-competitive Western Conference, one long stretch of losing games could put the Lakers in a bad position come playoff time.
Los Angeles should be able to stay afloat, as they are 4-1 in games without Davis thus far this season. But, it will a tall task keeping up that kind of production without an All-NBA performer in Davis.
