The Los Angeles Lakers went into Friday night’s matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks without LeBron James, which meant other guys like Anthony Davis and D’Angelo Russell needed to step up.
That’s exactly what they did as the Lakers fought a tough Bucks team had all night and ultimately came away with a big 123-122 win at Crypto.com Arena.
Davis was instrumental in that win, finishing with 22 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and three blocks while also battling with Giannis Antetokounmpo on the other end of the floor.
At the end of the third quarter, Davis tried to take a charge on Antetokounmpo, who was coming down the floor with a full head of steam. Not only was Davis called for a foul, but he appeared to injure his left shoulder on the play. While Davis was able to return to the game to close it out in the fourth, he was essentially playing with one arm and wasn’t able to do anything on the offensively end of the floor.
After the game, Davis discussed how that left shoulder was feeling.
“Sore. Couldn’t really move it after that but I’ll get some treatment and see how it feels tomorrow,” Davis said.
Anyone who watched the game could tell how much pain Davis was in, but he did not want to use that as an excuse and did what he could to try to help his team down the stretch.
“I mean, there were some plays that I know that I would normally make. A couple of offensive rebounds I think I could have got, but the shoulder just wasn’t allowing me to. even the layup with Spence. I wasn’t trying to use an excuse,” Davis said.
“Continue to go out there and do what I can to help the team win, just knowing my presence on both ends of the floor is impactful. So I just wasn’t gonna let the shoulder, especially in a game like this where we had a chance to win, wasn’t gonna come out and let my shoulder affect how I play.”
With another tough matchup coming up against Rudy Gobert and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday, Davis’ shoulder will be something to continue to monitor leading up to it.
Anthony Davis proud of Lakers’ resolve on defensive end
It was a back and forth game against the Bucks, but the Lakers got two big stops at the end to secure the win and Davis was proud of their ability to lock in defensively when they needed to.
“You got to defend. We’ve been in that situation multiple times this year. Having the lead and then teams come back,” Davis admitted. “So we’ve been in that situation before, and I think it those times before kind of helped us tonight. Obviously, DLo with his shot-making. But on a defensive end, I think like I said, I think we were just locked in and in tune with each other where we were able to get stops when we needed them.”
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