Coming into Saturday’s game against the division-rival Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Lakers were hoping to shake off the loss to the Sacramento Kings and get the best of Stephen Curry and company at Crypto.com Arena. Unfortunately for Los Angeles, things didn’t go as planned, with Anthony Davis only playing 12 minutes due to an eye injury and the team unable to get the win in his absence.
Late in the first quarter, Trayce Jackson-Davis struck Davis in the face as he was going up for a layup. It didn’t seem all that bad at first, but it clearly took a toll on Davis, who went straight to the bench and seemed to have trouble opening his left eye.
Ultimately, Davis was ruled out for the game as his left eye had swollen shut by halftime. He couldn’t see out of that eye and obviously couldn’t continue, which proved to be a costly loss for the Lakers. Los Angeles went on to lose against Golden State, and Davis’s absence made a considerable impact, which LeBron James talked about after the game.
“Well, I mean, when you’ve been preparing for a couple of days with our prep, and you lose a key component to your team in one quarter,” James said. “We tried to pick it up, but obviously, there are some things that we can’t do without AD.”
Davis was off to a decent start to the game as he had scored eight points, ripped down four rebounds, dished out two assists and had a block and a steal before leaving the contest.
James talked about where Davis was missed the most after he left the game after only 12 minutes on the basketball floor.
“Obviously, us having another threat always on the floor both offensively and defensively versus a team that has multiple threats,” James said. “So, obviously, when you lose AD, it just hurts the balance of our team. We’ve been pretty good of course, our coaching staff has been pretty good by having certain rotations and how we work in our rotations, so now that changes a lot of things. Obviously, you tip your hat. Golden State played exceptionally well.
“Obviously having Steph [Curry] back changed their dynamic. You could see the difference between when Steph was on the floor and the last couple games when he didn’t play. It’s tough when you have a big component to this puzzle, and then you don’t have it.”
As a result of the loss, the Lakers have dropped to 36-32 on the season, which seems to indicate the team will end up being the 10th seed in the Western Conference, meaning they’ll have to get through the Play-In Tournament in order to make the NBA playoffs once again this year.
Anthony Davis couldn’t see out of left eye
After only 12 minutes played, Anthony Davis headed to the bench and ultimately to the locker room after getting smacked in the face by Trayce Jackson-Davis while he was trying to finish a layup.
Although it didn’t look bad initially, Davis’ left eye quickly became swollen to the point he couldn’t even see out of it anymore. This resulted in him missing the rest of the game and the Lakers losing to the visiting Warriors, 128-121.
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