Lakers star Anthony Davis will miss Thursday’s game vs. Detroit due to a bruised right quad, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. As McMenamin notes, Davis seemed to be favoring his right leg during Wednesday’s loss to Philadelphia, but downplayed the issue after the game and said he felt “physically fine.”
This will be the third time this season that Davis has missed one half of a Lakers back-to-back set. Assuming the injury is minor, he should be able to return on Saturday when L.A. faces the Celtics in Boston.
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- After five straight postponed games, the Grizzlies returned to practice on Wednesday night, writes Evan Barnes of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. That’s a strong signal that the team will be ready to resume its schedule against San Antonio on Saturday, though it remains to be seen how many players will be available, says Barnes.
- With the Jazz on a 10-game winning streak, forward Joe Ingles told reporters on Wednesday that the team is “just a really fun group to play with,” tweets Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “There’s no egos involved,” Ingles said, adding, “It’s not as unsalvageable as some people think.” His last comment is a tongue-in-cheek reference to an Athletic report from last April in which a source suggested the relationship between Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert didn’t appear “salvageable.”
- Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, who is celebrating his 72nd birthday today, received the COVID-19 vaccine as part of an NBA-sponsored PSA (YouTube link). The NBA has said it won’t jump the line for the vaccine, but Popovich’s age made him a higher priority to be vaccinated. Mark Medina of USA Today has more details.
Playoffs
Jazz are likely to play Conference Finals?
Prediction
6 Warriors
7 Spurs – best player White is not playing
8 Blazers due to injury
9 Suns
Booker and Paul are unlikely to play 65 games or more
They started 32-13 last season, finished at 44-28, and lost in the first round.
“likely” lol the Jazz would get run out of the building by the Clippers or Lakers in a best of 7.
There is a chance Clippers knock out Lakers in the second round
Lol, please explain your logic on how the Utah Jazz would get “run out of the building” by the Clippers or Lakers. Have you actually watched the Jazz play THIS season?
Didn’t the Jazz already beat the Clips? Oh yeah, they did…. and pretty easily too.
Jazz are good. They win with starters missing, and Key players putting up doughnuts. They have a lefgitimate shot if they make it to the end healthy.
Just want to mention now. How all the writers and insiders had this Rudy and Spida narrative blowing up. How Mitchell wanted out and both will never get along. Then there’s all the geniuses with the value of big man. And how this gm has changed so much. Rudy is the best 2way player in the NBA. To Jazz he is worth max money. And winning cures all ills.
This is a team game….. NBA
The Bubble was mentioned as the perfect scenario for ironing out any hurt feelings. Although, they both said they talked it out before the bubble.
As for the playoffs, the Jazz aren’t getting ahead of themselves. They’re staying in the moment and not getting too high or too low. They have a unified focus, as a team, that I haven’t seen since 90’s teams.
Plus, this year’s team is more complete and resourceful than even last year’s team, including the bubble.
Some people think it’s because of Bojan being back. Well, he’s been okay, but he looks like he’s still getting his confidence back. His wrist is taking awhile to heal the soreness. In other words, this streak has been with Bojan playing much worse than last year. That should tell you how unified and dangerous this team is. There’s still room for them to improve.
Last year, it felt like the streak ended because it started midseason and Conley’s role wasn’t completely figured out yet, both by him and the rest of the team.
This year, Conley has the highest +/- in the league, by a comfortable margin! His defense and Gobert’s, in particular, are back to all-star levels. Royce is much more confident and complete. Clarkson is also more complete and playing at a top 6th-man of the year level. Favors has been a huge improvement as a backup center. He’s an elite defender and plays in a system better. We were missing that last year. Ingles had a sore Achilles, and sat 2-3 games but looked amazing against Dallas. Niang and Oni also have their moments when needed. Everyone is having fun and passing more.
Donovan has become more complete. His stats are up from last season. He’s also not a liability on defense like people claim. The Jazz offense is so balanced that whomever gets left open that game has a big game. Donovan, regardless, fights through any challenges. He does what the team needs that game. Conley has been a great example of that.
Lastly, the coaching staff don’t seem to be taking as many chances this year. The Jazz’s rotation has been shortened to a playoff rotation already. The end of the bench is Niang and he’s been playing more during the streak. The other guys like Oni only play when someone’s out, like when Ingles missed a few games. The new guys only seem to play when it’s a blowout, which is every game almost, but even then they only play the last 1-4 minutes. Like I said, they’re not taking any chances this year.
Overall, people are starting to see how much fun the Jazz are to watch this year. I hear people saying they haven’t been able to say that for years. They can tell there’s something different about this year’s team.
Look up what Kerr said about them.