The Los Angeles Lakers are already experiencing some early-season adversity. Injuries have decimated the team’s depth that they put together this summer with the most recent injury coming to superstar big man Anthony Davis, who is dealing with left hip/adductor spasms.
The injury is believed to be a minor one, but Davis sat out the Lakers embarrassing 128-94 loss Wednesday night to the Houston Rockets. The Lakers were absolutely dominated inside without Davis, being outscored by 26 points in the paint and allowing 24 second-chance points, which has been an issue all year long.
The loss dropped the Lakers to 3-5 and the team has yet to pick up a win on the road. The Lakers have one more game left on their current four-game road trip Friday night in Phoenix and according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, they are hopeful Davis will suit up for that contest:
The Lakers are hopeful that Davis will play in the road trip finale Friday in Phoenix, sources said, which doubles as L.A.’s first group-play game of the in-season tournament.
Obviously the Lakers chances of getting a win Friday night are greatly increased if Davis is in uniform. He has been outstanding this season on both ends of the court and has looked every bit like a player capable of leading this team. But Davis alone doesn’t solve all of the issues this team has.
Even with Davis in the lineup, the Lakers have regularly gotten off to terrible starts and are by far the worst first quarter team in the NBA. Likewise, the Lakers’ rebounding and turnover issues have been prevalent even when the big man is on the court and the team must figure out a way to turn these things around.
But make no mistake, Davis on the floor makes the Lakers a better team and the fact that these hip spasms don’t seem to be a serious injury is an overall positive. Getting healthy is a top priority for this Lakers team and that especially rings true for their stars.
Lakers’ Anthony Davis says entire team must help solve rebounding issues
Even when they are completely healthy the Lakers must figure out a way to solving their rebounding issues. The team has been unable to consistently clear the defensive glass and have allowed far too many second-chance points. Davis believes it is on the entire team to help this issue.
The big man made note of the fact that when the bigs have to go out and contest, the guards have to chip in on the glass and vice versa. Whatever the case may be, Davis and the Lakers have to find that answer otherwise these losses will continue to pile up.
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