In what has been a rough season as far as injuries go, the Los Angeles Lakers caught another bad break in Friday night’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves when Anthony Davis got his left knee fallen on in the third quarter and missed the remainder of the game.
In addition to injuries, the Lakers have also had a number of players in health and safety protocols over the last week, so they really can’t afford to lose Davis for an extended period of time at the moment.
The Lakers did not have much of an update on Davis after the loss to the Timberwolves, just saying that he was diagnosed with a left knee contusion and would undergo an MRI when the team got to Chicago.
The results of that MRI are now in and luckily for the Lakers and Davis, they avoided the worst, although he will still be out for a good chunk of time, per Mike Trudell of Spectrum SportsNet:
An MRI on the left knee of Anthony Davis revealed an MCL sprain. Davis will be re-evaluated by Lakers team doctors in about 4 weeks.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) December 18, 2021
The results of the MRI could have been worse, but this is still not ideal for Davis and the Lakers, who are working on coming out of their early-season slump.
While Davis’ play this season has been subpar by his standards, he is still averaging 23.3 points, 9.9 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.0 blocks per game. Given the Lakers’ lack of size on their roster, he is also irreplaceable for them long-term, so the hope is that he will be able to return sooner rather than later once he is re-evaluated in a month.
Ariza nearing return
One player the Lakers should be getting back soon who can help in the absence of Anthony Davis is Trevor Ariza, who has yet to play this season after undergoing ankle surgery during training camp.
Ariza suited up for the first time against the Timberwolves although that was only in case of emergency given how short-handed the Lakers were. Still though, him being able to suit up at all is a good sign that a return could be imminent.
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