As Lakers superstar Anthony Davis continues to work his way back to the court, his teammates are going to keep trying to hold down the fort until his return. So far, things haven’t been going well.
Losers of three straight games now, the Lakers are 13-19 with a tough game tomorrow against Luka Doncic, the Dallas Mavericks.
How that game will go is anyone’s guess, but the Lakers know what they have to do. Following a loss against the 14th-place Hornets on Friday, Austin Reaves spoke candidly about the state of his ball club and what adjustments they need to make moving forward if they want to win without their best player.
Zooming out, Lakers’ defense has collapsed without Davis. They are 29th in defensive rating (124.7) and 27th in net rating (-9.9) over the past four games. The perimeter players are still defending as if they have Davis on the back line to clean up their mistakes, only it’s Bryant, Wenyen Gabriel or James, none of whom can replicate James’ interior defense.
“It’s hard when you lose somebody like AD,” Reaves said. “He’s the centerpiece to what we do defensively. … Obviously since he went out, the defensive rating hasn’t been good. So we have to figure out what we need to do to lower that and put ourselves in better situations. … It’s just too many points. You’re not going to win many games like that.”
Entering Friday’s contest, the Lakers were the league’s worst clutch team. Their opponent, the Hornets, entered as the league’s second-worst team.
Naturally, something had to give. And as has too often been the case this season, it was the Lakers. https://t.co/E7Z1pBDpJW
— The Athletic NBA (@TheAthleticNBA) December 24, 2022
LeBron James has really come alive since Davis went down, and he’s been doing his part to keep them competitive in these recent stretch of games. Guys like Thomas Bryant, Russell Westbrook, and (of course) Austin Reaves have also stepped up to provide a major spark for the Lakers.
But everybody knows that the Lakers go as far as Davis takes them, and there are some big questions about his health and durability heading into the new year.
Anthony Davis Hoping To Avoid Surgery On Injured Foot
While Davis isn’t yet close to a comeback, he might not be that far away, either. According to a report by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the pain has gone down, and there is optimism he could return sooner than expected.
ESPN Sources: The pain has subsided in past several days in Anthony Davis’ foot and he’s expected to rest it for another 7-to-10 days and have it re-evaluated and see if he can return to play. For now, there’s hope that a procedure can be avoided.
So it seems like there are some good things happening with AD’s recovery. Now, all the Lakers have to do is make sure they are good enough to stay within striking distance of the playoffs.
Playing better defense would be a great start, but that’s a lot easier said than done when your team’s best defender is the one on the sidelines.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
