The Los Angeles Lakers announced that Anthony Davis will miss some time.
Davis exited Tuesday’s 118-104 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in the opening half and did not return. On Wednesday, the Lakers said an MRI confirmed that the All-Star big man suffered an abdominal muscle strain.
They’ll re-evaluate Davis in approximately one week. He didn’t travel with the team back to Los Angeles.
In the midst of a stellar season, Davis is averaging a team-high 25.7 points, 11.9 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game. The 31-year-old scored 36 points in Saturday’s road win against the Golden State Warriors and 42 in Monday’s victory over the Charlotte Hornets.
“He’s playing at a really high level right now,” Redick said of Davis before Tuesday’s game, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “He’s got his pop and his juice back.”
Injuries have been a recurring theme of Davis’ career. He played 250 regular-season games in five seasons from 2018 to 2023 before playing a career-high 76 games last season.
Davis has missed just three games this year for the Lakers, who are fifth in the Western Conference at 26-19. They won six of their last seven games before stumbling without the three-time block leader on Tuesday.
“When our best player goes out, it’s always challenging,” LeBron James said after the game. “If he’s out from the beginning, then we have a game plan set. We know what to expect, we know what our lineup is going to be. But when AD or any one of our guys go down throughout the course of a game, it’s just tough.”
The Lakers likely won’t have Davis available when playing four games over the next nine days. That stretch includes a trip to Madison Square Garden this Saturday and marquee Western Conference matchups against the Warriors and Clippers next Tuesday and Thursday.
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