APRIL 1: Coach Frank Vogel said Davis will play on Friday, per Andrew Lopez of ESPN (Twitter link). James will play as well, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports tweets. The Lakers face the Pelicans at 9:30pm CT.
MARCH 31: Lakers star Anthony Davis intends to return Friday against the Pelicans as long as there are no setbacks, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium (Twitter link).
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski also reports (via Twitter) that LeBron James is going to test his sprained left ankle in an effort to return to action with Davis. Wojnarowski listed Davis as a game-time decision, but he apparently plans to play. Both players are out Thursday versus Utah, Wojnarowski tweets.
Davis last played on February 16, when he suffered a right mid-foot sprain. A report earlier this week indicated he was hoping to return this weekend. Through 37 games this season (35.1 MPG), Davis is averaging 23.1 PPG, 9.7 RPG, 2.9 APG, 1.2 SPG and 2.3 BPG on .537/.182/.709 shooting.
It has been a strange season for Davis in a number of ways, as he hasn’t made his usual impact defensively, and his marks from three-point range (since he started attempting them semi-regularly in 2015/16) and the free throw line are both career-lows. However, he’s shooting a career-best .578 on two-pointers.
After appearing in 36 of 72 contests last season, he’s had another injury-played season in 2021/22, appearing in 37 of 75 games.
James, meanwhile, injured his ankle Sunday in the team’s loss at New Orleans, saying it felt “horrible” at the time. He was subsequently granted permission to leave the team’s road trip and return to Los Angeles for treatment and evaluation of the injury.
At 37 years old, James is averaging 30.1 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 6.3 APG, 1.3 SPG and 1.1 BPG on .523/.359/.756 shooting through 55 games (37.2 MPG). He currently leads the league in scoring, but needs to play at least three more games to qualify for the scoring title.
Friday’s matchup with the Pelicans will be crucial for the Lakers as they attempt to make the play-in tournament. The Pelicans (33-43) are the current No. 9 seed in the West, while the Lakers (31-44) trail by one-and-a-half games. Both teams are trying to fend off the Spurs (31-45) to secure a chance to make the playoffs.
If the Lakers and Spurs finish the season with an identical record, the Spurs would hold the tiebreaker and advance to the play-in tournament due to a better conference record (21-25 for the Spurs, compared to 16-29 for the Lakers).
I feel like a lot of people forgot how great this NCAA champ/Olympic gold medalist/NBA champ is. Time to remind em
He can remind me by not being outplayed by a 37 year old on his own team.
Or you could just not forget something as obvious as Anthony Davis being extremely great at basketball
AD is a loser. If they get passed by the Pelicans it would be very ironic and he should quit basketball. I’m exaggerating a bit for affect but also kinda not.
IMO if you care more about street wear and street clothes go work for a clothing brand. Leave basketball to the people who want to be there…
@Lil
such a weird take. you think he cares more about fashion vs playing or am I missing your attempt at sarcasm?
Lil has been on here trying to trash AD for months. It’s always funny because he never brings up health as his biggest weakness which is a totally valid point. He just calls him a loser and bad at basketball
Well his nickname is street clothes so I don’t know why he’d go by that if he wasnt obsessed with his looks. Plus I see him on the bench in designer wear. He should care more about purple and gold than Bape or Chrome Hearts or Stone Island
@Lil D
you really think that’s a nickname he chose? I’m 100% sure it’s a snarky nickname given to him by some talking head like Skip Bayless who was three first person I ever heard refer to Westbrook as Westbrick. AD doesn’t refer to himself by “street clothes”. And so what if he had a sense of style. Has nothing to do with anything else. Aside from Jarrett Allen most NBA players try to be stylish off court.
Charles Barkley called him Anthony “Street Clothes” Davis during the playoffs last year, if I recall correctly.
Real nicknames are always given never choosen… Word
“Street clothes” is a derogatory nickname that was foisted on him. He presumably is not asking people to call him that.
Often, one earns a nickname. Davis has earned “Street Clothes”.
Trying to nail down the 11th seed in the West…
I heard Adam silver is gonna expand it just this year for bron
AD is arrogant, egomaniacal, weak minded, and fragile. New Orleans Pelicans absolutely obliterated the Lakers in the 2019 trade.
Pelicans can fly. Lakes can’t. Just sayin…
Banners fly forever
Until you lose your pw and are locked out of your crypto.com wallet forever
Those who think the Lakers lost the trade are delusional. We can say both won. The ring alone make the trade worth, that’s what every team wants and they got it.
How did they obliterate that trade. Josh hart gone as part of McCollum trade who’s making 30+ million. Now will have 3 max players soon. Zion, Cj and ingram. Ball walked. What have the picks turned into? Hunter plays on hawks. Ingram is good but how many playoff appearances? Pelicans are set up to be in salary cap hell shortly
@mhdunbar
What are you basing this’s arrogant and egomaniacal traits on? I won’t disagree with him being fragile. This idea that the Pelicans won that trade is laughable. Lakers won a chip with AD. Pelicans have yet to sniff the playoffs until perhaps this season.
If he Plays he might get injured again …
Who is the oldest player to win a scoring title?
Google helped me:
“Only five players on the wrong side of 30 have led the league in scoring historically. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but Michael Jordan is currently the oldest player to have led the NBA in scoring when he accomplished just that in his final season with the Chicago Bulls, in 1997-98, when he put up 28.7 points per game as a 35-year-old.”
link to hoopshype.com
Is the over/under on how long AD plays before being sidelined again being quoted in games, quarters or are they down to minutes yet?
this Laker team is nothing but a circus act need to trade LeBron James and AD for future draft picks and regroup
Future draft picks are for losers, very rarely a winning team is build through them, losing is of no use… rebuilds don’t tend to work for a reason!
Drafting Steph, Klay & Draymond worker pretty well for the Warriors
How many more teams… one in a century kind of proofs my point, so thank you for agreeing with me, right?
Draft is for losers, unless the top teams pick first of course!
NBA Finals here we come.
CJ the closer …….
You lose at home. To the team you need to beat to get in playoffs. Bron played hero ball tonight. He hasn’t been about winning this yr. I have to think it’s his age. He made some selfish moves at end of gm. The window is Closed. Father Time is undefeated. Go to Cleveland and end your career with dignity. Help the Lakers rebuild in a trade to Cavs.
Bron is Stat chasing, everybody knows he wants to surpass the Great Kareem Abdul Jabbar as the all time leading points scorer. At this point that’s all LeBron really wants, let’s stop kidding
ourselves. Bron will not quit until he achieves that vital nugget
That’s all any athlete cares about anymore. Stats.
Titles won is a stat too.