During the first half of the Los Angeles Lakers’ eventual 128-121 home loss to the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night, the team incurred a major injury. All-Star LA center Anthony Davis suffered an eye contusion while going up for a layup against reserve Warriors big man Trayce Jackson-Davis. Jackson-Davis hit Davis (inadvertently) on the play.
Per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, Davis attempted to play through the ailment during the contest’s second quarter. He would later be ruled out for the rest of the night. McMenamin reported later that The Brow’s eye got swollen shut while he also dealt with vision impairment. The Lakers intend to keep tabs on Davis ahead of the club’s matchup against the Atlanta Hawks later tonight.
This year, the 6’10” big man out of Kentucky returned to the All-Star game for the first time in three seasons. Assuming he does return soon and is able to play for more than 15 minutes across at least two more bouts, it seems like Davis could make his fifth All-NBA team (his first in four seasons) this year. Odds are good he will not make an All-NBA First Team, however, as Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, the leading candidate for league MVP honors (which would be his third such award across the past four seasons) seems to have that honor all locked up.
AD has been a stellar defender for Los Angeles in 2023-24, but the Lakers’ lackluster overall team defense may eventually omit him from making his fifth All-Defensive club. It may not be entirely his fault, but that in combination with Los Angeles’ overall middling record could hurt his chances of a selection. He’s still putting up an excellent stat line, though. Across his 64 appearances with the 36-32 Lakers this season, Davis is logging averages of 24.5 points on 55.1% shooting from the field, 12.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.4 blocks and 1.2 steals per bout.
All-Stars LeBron James #23 and Anthony Davis #3 of the Los Angeles Lakers stand for the national anthem before their game against the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center on January 27, 2024 in San… All-Stars LeBron James #23 and Anthony Davis #3 of the Los Angeles Lakers stand for the national anthem before their game against the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center on January 27, 2024 in San Francisco, California. A later battle against Golden State may have cost LA dearly.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Los Angeles has had difficulty on both ends of the floor when Davis hasn’t played. That happened again in this Golden State matchup. Per The Los Angeles Times’ Bill Plaschke, the Warriors outscored the Lakers by 13 points overall sans Davis (18 in the post). That makes sense, given that he’s their best paint player and perhaps their best player overall. He’s certainly neck-and-neck with fellow LA All-Star and future Hall of Famer LeBron James.
The Warriors and Lakers have been jockeying for position on the fringes of the Western Conference play-in tournament for much of the year. Los Angeles entered the clash yesterday as the West’s ninth seed, with the Warriors in tenth, but the Golden State victory flipped things. The Warriors improved to a 35-31 record with the win, which is mere fractions of a percentage point better than LA’s current aforementioned 36-32 season record. Both seem well clear of the 11th-seeded Houston Rockets (32-35).
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