The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a disappointing loss to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night. With a chance to climb to .500 and inch closer to moving out of the Play-In Tournament, the Lakers fell to the team with the worst record in the NBA. And afterward, many fans were frustrated that superstar big man Anthony Davis sat out the game.
Davis had another monster game in the Lakers’ victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday and head coach Darvin Ham has said that Davis is playing pain-free. With every game meaning so much at this stage of the season, the Lakers choosing to sit Davis, even against the Rockets, was met with some raised eyebrows and it is difficult to believe the Lakers wouldn’t have gotten the victory had he suited up.
One long-time celebrity fan who was frustrated was Flea, who let his thoughts be known on Twitter. Flea wondered why the Lakers wouldn’t just sit Davis out the second half of Tuesday’s blowout win so he could have some minutes to spare on Wednesday. But according to Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group, Davis has been advised not to play back-to-backs right now:
To answer Flea's and a lot of your questions, did check last night and learned AD's status for today was not contingent on his minute count yesterday. Just has been advised not to play back-to-back nights. https://t.co/y7BpAyBS2Z
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) March 16, 2023
This would certainly explain why Davis has continued to sit out these back-to-backs, especially after Ham previously said that no players would sit out games unless hurt. While Davis is pain-free, the Lakers want him to remain that way and the team doctors obviously don’t feel comfortable with him playing those back-to-backs just yet.
The good news for the Lakers regarding this is that the team has just one more back-to-back remaining this year on April 4 and 5 and there are no back-to-backs in the playoffs should the team make it that far. The Lakers need ADavis at his best to make a run and barring anything unfortunate, the team will have him on the floor with just one potential exception.
Darvin Ham believes Lakers’ energy, effort and urgency was ‘non-existent’ in Rockets loss
The Lakers have won games without Davis and LeBron James before and there was some hope they could do so again on Wednesday, but Darvin Ham’s team came out slow and were never able to recover. Afterward, the Lakers coach lamented his team’s lack of effort.
Ham believed his team’s energy, effort and urgency was ‘non-existent’ to start the contest and credited the Rockets for playing the way he wanted the Lakers to play. But Ham offered no excuses for the Lakers, noting that effort should be there regardless of who is in or out of the lineup.
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