Lakers star Anthony Davis has a mid-foot sprain in his right foot and will be re-evaluated in four weeks, the team announced Thursday. Davis suffered the injury during the second quarter of the Lakers' 106-101 win over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.
Davis landed awkwardly and instantly crumbled to the court after appearing to turn his right ankle on the foot of Utah's Rudy Gobert. He was unable to put any weight on his ankle as teammates helped him off the court. After the game, his X-rays came back negative and the team initially said he had an ankle sprain.
Davis missed 17 games earlier this season with a sprained MCL in his left knee. He had 17 points, two rebounds, two assists and two blocks before exiting the game against the Jazz.
(Photo: Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)
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Oram: Anthony Davis, empathy and the cumulative weight of disappointment
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How the Lakers will try to survive without Anthony Davis for at least a month
Who must step out with AD out?
Bill Oram, Lakers beat writer: I’m sure Frank Vogel would talk about a team effort and doing it by committee. And guys like Stanley Johnson, Trevor Ariza, Austin Reaves and Carmelo Anthony (assuming he’s healthy) will all matter, but the fact is the Lakers still have two top-75 players in their starting lineup — more than almost any other team.
So I’m looking directly at Russell Westbrook. This season has been imperfect for the L.A. native and I’m sure, deep down, he’s rethinking his decision to come home. But the Lakers need someone to fill the void of Davis’s 23 points and nearly 10 rebounds per game. It should be Westbrook. As he likes to say, “Why not?”
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Do the Lakers use LeBron at center more?
Oram: That was what worked when Davis missed 17 games with a strained MCL earlier this season and seems like the cleanest way for the Lakers to maintain their small-ball rotations. The Lakers simply can’t afford to go big with Dwight Howard or DeAndre Jordan and sacrifice that spacing.
This might be the time for Ariza to take on a bigger, more consistent role. The Lakers envisioned him as a starter in a small-ball lineup with James and Davis before he underwent ankle surgery during training camp. He could slide in next to James in the frontcourt for the duration of Davis’s absence.
How this changes the Lakers’ playoff outlook
Oram: It’s so bizarre to say this, but I’m not really sure it does. The Lakers entered the All-Star break in ninth place in the West, one game behind the Clippers. Maybe with Davis, they’re better positioned to jump into eighth and need only one win to advance to the first round of the playoffs, rather than the two a ninth or 10th-place team will need.
But the Lakers were still going to need to win Play-In games and then try to pull off an upset in the first round with Davis. This timeline suggests he should be back before the Play-In, meaning that the Lakers could face essentially the same road as they would have if Davis had been healthy.