Lakers: Anthony Davis Expected to Miss Significant Time
The Lakers are very fortunate to be heading into the All-Star break right now. For a team struggling to hold onto their place in the play-in tournament, watching Anthony Davis go down had to be very scary. But that extra week of rest is going to make all of the difference for Los Angeles.
Unfortunately, the Lakers are probably going to have to play without AD for most of the regular season. The big man went down hard on his ankle in their last game against the Jazz and had to be carried off of the court.
Initial x-rays came back negative on AD's ankle, which was good news. But he had an MRI scheduled to follow up on the injury, and it sounds like that returned some worse news. Davis is expected to be out of games for the next 4 weeks and will then be reevaluated.
The Lakers are calling it a mid-sprain for Davis, who has suffered through multiple lower-body injuries this season already. But if he has to be out for a minimum of 4 weeks, that could really complicate things for this squad.
That would put his timetable for a return, at best, right around March 16th. That would mean that he would be available to play the Lakers' last 14 games of the season. But given the need to reevaluate and adjust, it would be shocking if he played in more than 10 games.
They need him right for the playoffs, and the Lakers are going to do everything they can to protect his health. But things just got a whole lot more complicated.