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After a delayed flight kept the Los Angeles Lakers away from home longer than expected, Anthony Davis didn’t get his much anticipated MRI until Monday as opposed to Sunday. Luckily for Lakers fans, it was well worth the wait.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the MRI of Davis’ right thumb returned clean. Davis suffered the injury — which is believed to be a Grade 1 thumb sprain —against the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday.
As expected, AD’s MRI returned clean (technically, a grade 1 tear still means ligament damage with micro-tearing of the ligament fibers but often won’t show up on MRI).
— Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT (@3cbPerformance) October 14, 2019
Still, Davis and his superstar teammate, LeBron James, will sit against the Golden State Warriors on Monday night, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports:
Los Angeles Lakers stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis are expected to sit out tonight’s game against the Golden State Warriors, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) October 14, 2019
It’s unclear at this time if Davis will miss time outside of Monday’s game, but it’s safe to assume he might be sidelined for the Lakers’ next preseason game on Wednesday. The Lakers will play one more time against the Warriors on Friday before opening their regular season four days later, on Tuesday, Oct. 22 against the LA Clippers.
While James and Davis get some much-needed rest and recovery after a hectic trip to China, head coach Frank Vogel will have to find ways to fill the holes in his rotation. The only problem is that the team’s depth at forward is all but gone due to injuries and load management.
Kyle Kuzma is scheduled to be re-evaluated before tip-off on Monday, but it’s highly unlikely that Vogel will let him play before getting in a full-contact practice with the Lakers. The same can be said of Jared Dudley, although his chances of playing are slightly higher because he was a full participant in training camp up until the team’s preseason opener.
In the meantime, Kostas Antetokounmpo will probably see the floor more, as will Devontae Cacok. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope could also play power forward again out of necessity, but that shouldn’t be too much of an issue because the Warriors aren’t deep at either forward position either.
The Lakers and Warriors will tip off at 7:30 p.m. on NBA TV nationally and Spectrum SportsNet locally.
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