The Los Angeles Lakers have gotten bit by the injury bug. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Markieff Morris and Wesley Matthews all suffered injuries in the game against the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday night. Caldwell-Pope and Matthews were able to return to the game, but Morris was not.
Morris is the latest big man to go down for the Lakers, joining Anthony Davis. Davis is dealing with a calf strain suffered in the last week or two. Davis missed two games with Achilles soreness before returning against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Anthony Davis came out of that game unscathed. Going into the following game against the Denver Nuggets, Davis said he was feeling great. That feeling didn’t last long, as Davis lasted fewer than 15 minutes and said he felt worse than he did when he sat out the two games.
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Originally, Davis was given a 2-3 week timetable before being re-evaluated. Now, that timeline has been extended.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Anthony Davis was re-evaluated Thursday evening and he will now be sidelined for at least four weeks now.
“We want to try to put this fully behind him and be conservative with it, just to make sure that it’s fully healed before he’s back,” Vogel said.
According to a Lakers’ spokesman, that timeline involves Davis’ rehab and recovery in addition to him ramping up his production in practice and workouts to resemble game action.
“He’s doing exactly what he needs to do to get himself back into the best health that he can be in,” said LeBron James. “He has an injury that he can’t mess around with too much, and as an organization, as his teammates, as me as his brother, he has our full support. So, take his time, as much as he needs.”
That is the smartest way for the Lakers to handle this. Anthony Davis has had a lengthy injury history and they need him for when the playoffs roll around. Los Angeles doesn’t matter where they are in the standings; they just need to make the dance.
Kyle Kuzma will be tasked with filling in for Davis in the starting lineup, with Talen Horton-Tucker, Alex Caruso and Morris seeing more minutes off the bench.
While things didn’t go well against the Brooklyn Nets, the Lakers have great depth and could weather the storm for a few weeks. As long as LeBron James is healthy and in the lineup, the Lakers have a chance every time they step on the court.
