The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a brutal blow when NBA superstar Anthony Davis got hurt against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night. Davis had his left knee crashed into by Timberwolves’ power forward Jaden McDaniels and instantly thought the worst.
Davis said that he heard a pop and thought that a major injury had occurred. Luckily for Davis and the team, it was not as serious as he thought it might be. He was diagnosed with a knee sprain and will be re-evaluated in four weeks.
The injury for Davis could not have come at a much worse time for the Lakers. In addition to Davis and Kendrick Nunn, who has not played a single second this season yet because of injuries, the team has also been hit hard by COVID-19.
Los Angeles currently has six players in the league’s health and safety protocols; Dwight Howard, Talen Horton-Tucker, Austin Reaves, Avery Bradley, Kent Bazemore, and Malik Monk are all currently sidelined. Head coach Frank Vogel is also in protocols and away from the team.
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Players being in and out of the lineup all season is unfortunately something that the Lakers have gotten used to this season. LeBron James has played in only 19 games while Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony are the only two players to appear in all 31 games thus far this season.
Despite all of the pieces they are missing, Davis believes that the Los Angeles Lakers are still in good shape going forward.
“I feel like when we’re healthy we’re a pretty good team,” Davis said. “We started playing well, start getting a rhythm with each other and then all the COVID stuff happened and then more injuries. So it’s not where we want to be, but we’re not in a terrible spot.
“We’re still in a good spot, for a team who feel like they can, could have done more, or win more games, games we should have won, and we’re still in a good spot. So hopefully we can stay afloat with all the stuff going on around the team and being able to still pursue our goal, which is to win a championship.”
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Staying afloat without Anthony Davis will be a challenge, but it will certainly be easier with James and Westbrook being in the lineup. It will be a little easier to overcome the loss of Davis with Trevor Ariza making his return to the lineup.
Ariza made his season debut against the Chicago Bulls after undergoing an operation on his ankle. He played 15 minutes in his first game of the season. Carmelo Anthony could also be relied upon for more minutes in the frontcourt as the team tries to navigate the next few weeks without one of its Big 3.
