The Los Angeles Lakers picked up a dominant 123-103 win over the Toronto Raptors tonight and improved their record to 6-4. Despite the blowout, the win didn’t look guaranteed when Anthony Davis checked out of the game with five minutes left in the third quarter with an eye injury as the Lakers trailed by three points.
While the Lakers ensured they won the game behind a triple-double by LeBron James and 40 points from the bench, Davis’ absence has caused fans to worry. Head coach JJ Redick spoke to the media after the game but didn’t have an update to satisfy their fans tonight.
“I just know that he got poked in it. He was having trouble seeing. After trauma to the eye, it takes a little time to get your clear vision back. Other than that, no update.”
Davis put up 22 points (6-8 FG), four rebounds, three assists, one steal, and two blocks in the win, playing just 25 minutes. The Lakers outscored the Raptors 70-48 in the second half, which also led to Davis being the only Laker with a negative plus-minus (-3) due to his lack of participation in the fourth quarter.
This is the second injury Davis has suffered through the opening 10 games of the season, picking up an ankle injury in their loss to the Detroit Pistons which led to the Lakers losing convincingly to the Memphis Grizzlies without Davis on the court.
They looked good tonight, but the Lakers can’t feasibly expect themselves to be a competitive Playoff-caliber team if Davis is not available on the court.
He suffered a similar eye injury last March which caused him to miss a couple of games. His bruising style of play makes him susceptible to minor injuries like this, so it’ll be interesting to see how he approaches his comeback.
Many fans are suggesting Davis embraces what Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did when he was picking up too many eye injuries and started wearing goggles on the court. Many players do find protective instruments such as goggles and masks cumbersome to wear on the court, so Davis might not heed the suggestions coming in from his fans.
He’s averaging 31.2 points, 10.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.3 steals, and 2.0 blocks this season and is expected to be an MVP candidate. For that to be real, Davis needs to play above 65 games like he did last season and the Lakers need to have a top-three record in the West.
Tonight’s win bumped them up to No. 6 in the standings, showing more work needs to be done. The Lakers will head into a tricky rematch against the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, with Davis’ availability hopefully allowing them to get revenge on the loss the Grizz handed the Lakers when he was out injured.
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