MEMPHIS, Tenn. — All-Star big man Anthony Davis wasn’t available for the Lakers’ game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night at FedExForum.
Davis, who entered Wednesday leading the NBA in scoring at 32.6 points per game, was officially ruled out of the finale of the five-game trip because of a bruised left heel.
Starting forward Rui Hachimura also sat out because of an illness.
“I don’t think there’s a diagnosis,” Coach JJ Redick said of Davis before the game. “It’s just left foot soreness. We haven’t gotten an image or anything. From my understanding, it is something that off and on has bothered him a little bit throughout the summer and so far in the season, but I don’t think there’s an official diagnosis, so it’s just left foot soreness. We’ll obviously miss him a lot.”
Davis was gimpy late in the fourth quarter of Monday’s loss to the Detroit Pistons after LeBron James assisted him on a floater with 4:46 left in the game.
The Lakers called a timeout 1½ minutes later, with Davis lying on the court and getting his left foot looked at by team trainers before finishing the game and saying afterward that he has been managing the issue since the summer.
“My goal for every game is to be on the floor,” Davis said on Monday. “And I just kind of landed directly on the spot that’s been killing me. So, we’ll figure it out.”
When asked about the severity of the foot issue, Davis responded: “I don’t know. I’m not sure to be honest. We’ll see. But we’ll take it a day at a time and kind of see how it feels and where it goes.”
When a reporter asked James about the status of the Lakers if Davis’ foot injury sidelined him for any time, Davis interrupted the question, saying, “He’s not out. You already asked that question.”
Davis, who was on the injury report as questionable entering Wednesday, was at the team’s morning shootaround and went through his pregame warmup before being ruled out.
Redick didn’t rule out Davis for Friday’s home game against the Philadelphia 76ers.
“I don’t expect to go through it again on Friday. For all of us, we want to take a long-term view on all of our players’ health for an 82-game season. Whatever he just did on the court, I didn’t watch it, obviously, but I just spoke with him before coming to talk to you guys. He was very positive about how it felt.
“But we recognize we got a long flight back to L.A., got to turn around and do it again on Friday. Hopefully, the extra 48 hours of rest will be good.”
Davis, 31, has dealt with his share of injuries throughout his career, playing in 70 or more games just three times in 12 previous seasons. He stayed largely healthy last season, however, appearing in 76 games while averaging 24.7 points, 12.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.3 blocked shots per game, while shooting 55.6% from the field.
More to come on this story.
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