The Los Angeles Lakers have listed Anthony Davis (left eye contusion) as probable and LeBron James (left ankle peroneal tendinpathy) as questionable for the team’s contest Friday night against the Memphis Grizzlies.
LeBron suited up for the Lakers on Tuesday night against the Warriors after missing the prior contest against the Minnesota Timberwolves due to flu-like symptoms. He was able to rest up enough to not only play, but have an excellent showing against the Warriors, but the Lakers weren’t able to overcome Davis’ absence in a loss.
Davis aggravated an earlier eye injury after getting hit in the face by an elbow in the contest against the Timberwolves and missed the remainder of the game. He would then sit out Tuesday’s contest against the Warriors due to headache and nausea, though he was not entered into concussion protocol.
These final two games of the season are of the utmost importance to the Lakers, who are now locked into the Play-In Tournament. However, with a pair of wins to finish the season and a little help from around the league, they could still improve their overall positioning and find themselves in a more advantageous spot.
The Grizzlies are one of the worst teams in the Western Conference, but they still play extremely hard every night and the Lakers can not afford to take them lightly. But most important, they simply need their stars on the court and healthy. The Lakers have shown they can hang with any team in the league as long as Davis and James are on the court and they were playing their best ball of the season before these last couple of games in which one or both were unavailable.
Having both on the court and getting the team back on track heading into the Play-In Tournament is the biggest thing for the Lakers and hopefully that process will begin taking place Friday night.
Lakers locked into Play-In Tournament following Suns victory Wednesday
The Lakers’ fate in the Play-In Tournament was sealed on Wednesday night after the Phoenix Suns’ victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. The Lakers will be a Play-In team, though their positioning is still up in the air.
With a little help the Lakers could climb into the eighth spot and only need to win one game to qualify for the playoffs. But they also lose the tiebreaker to both the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings and, as such, have a good chance of being in that 10th spot and needing to win back-to-back road games to make it in.
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