The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a blowout loss on the road to the Denver Nuggets, but that is the least of the team’s concern after Anthony Davis was forced to leave in the second quarter.
Davis was isolated against Nikola Jokic and drove to the rim and came up hobbling on the play. He was able to knock down two free throws, but the Lakers were then forced to foul so Davis could hobble off the floor and to the locker room.
Although the 27-year-old was able to walk back under his own power, he was immediately ruled out of the game with what was reportedly a re-aggravation of the Achilles tendonosis issue he has been dealing with the past two weeks.
Davis is now scheduled to undergo an MRI on his injury, which the team has diagnosed an Achilles strain. “His spirits were good. He just felt like he kind of tweaked it, re-aggravated what he had last week,” Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said of his conversation with Davis at halftime.
“Hopefully it’s nothing longterm; we’ll see what the MRI says.”
The early reports stated that Davis’ Achilles experienced some swelling and the MRI should help clarify the extent to which he aggravated the injury. Davis appeared to be in severe discomfort when shooting his free throws, and did not seem able to put any weight on his foot when exiting the game.
Davis recently clarified his injury and it is safe to assume that he will be experiencing the same sort of symptoms as he recovers from this latest setback. The good news, though, is that it seemingly appears he avoided a complete tear of the tendon which would have been catastrophic to say the least.
With no clear timetable for Davis’ return, players like Kyle Kuzma and Markieff Morris will need to step up in his place. Hopefully the Lakers are able to hold down the fort until he is able to return.
Markieff Morris thrust back into rotation
With Davis out for the foreseeable future, Morris will get his opportunity to fill in and potentially reclaim a spot in Vogel’s rotation.
Morris’ ability to guard up a position will be valuable, but he needs to be able to known down threes if he wants to make a positive impact in the interim. Hopefully he is able to come through and make up some of the production that is loss with Davis out.
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