Frank Vogel says Lakers are ‘excited’ for Anthony Davis to return

The Lakers announced on Friday night that they’re going to re-evaluate Anthony Davis in two weeks as he continues to rehabilitate his Achilles tendinosis and calf strain, but that he has been “cleared to enter the next phase of his return to play process.”

After the team beat the Indiana Pacers without Davis later that night, head coach Frank Vogel said the update on Davis didn’t surprise him, and seemed to take it as a good sign.

“We anticipated it’s going to be a little bit of a build-up once we got back (from the All-Star break),” Vogel said. “We’ll be patient, we’ll continue to compete and win games and we’ll all be very excited when we finally get him back.”

As for what the next stage of Davis’ rehab looks like, Vogel said he wasn’t sure.

“I really haven’t dove into the details of that. I’m not sure what the specifics are yet other than that he’s getting up to the build-up, and we’re eager to get him back,” Vogel said.

Earlier this week, Vogel had revealed that Davis had been lifting weights at the facility, but was not able to do anything with the team on the floor. Doing the latter will be necessary before he can get back on the floor, and it’s a safe bet Davis will begin to do so over the next couple of weeks.

But while their win over Indiana moved the Lakers to 8-7 without Davis, showing that they are capable of posting a winning record in the absence of their second star, Vogel, LeBron James and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope all said on Friday that their record without Davis isn’t something they’re watching.

“I’m looking at it as we’re starting the second half of our season tonight, so we’re 1-0 during that stretch. Nobody was happy with how we finished going into the break,” Vogel said. “Losing a couple more starters in addition to having AD out set us back a little bit. We’ve just got play through that and put that stretch behind us, because we’re still undermanned right now and we’re going to be for some time.

“We’ve just got to compete and win games. Right now we’re 1-0 in the second half, and in a couple nights we’ll try to go 2-0.”

The Lakers don’t play again until Monday, and will have their 11th practice of the season on Saturday, and it’s likely we’ll get an update on how Davis, Alex Caruso — who was being evaluated for a concussion after last night’s game — and the rest of the team are doing after that session takes place.

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