When the Los Angeles Lakers traded for Anthony Davis to pair him with LeBron James, there were some who cautioned the team’s duo could come undone by injury. James was coming off a groin strain that cut his first season with the Lakers short, and Davis has a long injury history.
That did surface in some regard as Davis has missed a combined eight games this season due to a sore right shoulder, sprained ankle, gluteus maximus contusion and right knee soreness. Davis missed the most time — five games — due to the glut issue.
There additionally were times when Davis appeared bothered by his lingering shoulder issue, though he managed to remain on the court. But now that Davis and the rest of the NBA has been on hiatus since March 11, he’s managed to get fully healthy.
“It’s given me a chance to let my body recover and kind of take a midseason break, just let everything heal and get back to how I was at the beginning of the year,” Davis said on a conference call with reporters.
“It’s been good for me to let some of the lingering injuries I had toward the time when the NBA stopped, to kind of let those recover and heal and get back to being the best version of myself.”
Davis added he feels “100%” healthy, then caught himself. “Well, I don’t feel. I am. I’m ready to go.”
While Davis used the layoff to recover from injuries, he still kept active on a daily basis. “I got so fat, I was eating burgers every day, conditioning was down,” he first joked. “Nah, I’ve been great. I’ve been spending time with my family, taking it a day at a time and figuring out what’s going on.
“I’ve been working out every day at home and just enjoying family time before we have to be gone for three months. I got really great at Call of Duty and 2K. A lot of video games. I haven’t been doing much.”
Davis, James and Alex Caruso were among the Lakers to participate in the first day of mandatory workouts at the team’s UCLA Health Training Center. Citing privacy concerns, the Lakers won’t publicly state who is available on a daily basis.
However, the team did provide photos and video of Caruso, Davis and James going through various drills.
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