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When Anthony Davis banged his thumb during a preseason game over the weekend, many throughout the NBA Twitter-sphere jumped to the conclusion that he was still injury prone and that we all should’ve seen this coming — some even going so far as to put the season on the brink for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Now, only a few days later, Davis says the plan is to return to action Wednesday night when the Lakers play the Golden State Warriors.
Whoops.
“We’ll see how it feels when I wake up. It got bumped a couple times, but that’s probably what I wanted just to test it out. We’re going to have to see how it feels at shootaround tomorrow and when I warm up before the game, but so far it felt fine in practice today, so hopefully there are no hiccups,” Davis told reporters after practice Tuesday.
”The plan is tomorrow, but we’ll see how it feels over the next 24 hours. I’m hoping that I can play.”
Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN grabbed some video of Davis participating in a team scrimmage:
Looks like AD testing thumb pic.twitter.com/H6uldhrDjB
— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) October 15, 2019
Veteran move from Davis to check on his hand after airballing a three. We’ve all been there.
Jokes about asinine and intellectually dishonest takes from platforms headed by Celtics fans aside, this is an immeasurably huge development. The Lakers have quite a few wrinkles to still work out, and with so many moving pieces, the more working hands on deck, obviously, the better.
Now, there is something to be said about whether it makes sense to rush Davis back even if he feels fine. The Lakers are historically very careful about these things, though, so if he plays, suffice it to say he’s at 100%.
Whether or not Davis actually plays Wednesday is beside the point anyway. The fact that they’re even discussing this just shows how minor an injury it initially was, and likely means he’ll be ready for the start of the season, which is really all that matters here.
As if the Davis news wasn’t enough, the Lakers might be getting another shooter back soon, too. Quinn Cook has yet to participate in any preseason games, but it appears that should be changing sometime soon:
Quinn Cook practiced today and will be a game time decision tomorrow.
— Laker Film Room (@LakerFilmRoom) October 15, 2019
The sooner everyone is fully healthy, the better. It isn’t worth rushing anyone back, but that isn’t the kind of thing you usually have to worry about with this organization. All around, this is all great news.
For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. Yell at the author on Twitter @AnthonyIrwinLA.