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The Los Angeles Lakers practiced at a local high school in Tampa Bay, Florida on Monday to prepare for their Tuesday game against the Raptors. And while Anthony Davis isn’t expected to play during their five-game Eastern Conference road trip, he joined his teammates on the road as he continues to rehab his calf strain and Achilles injuries.
Davis isn’t on some week-long vacation, though. While the Lakers are practicing and playing games as a team, Davis will doing individual workouts to slowly build up to his highly-anticipated return for the team. When exactly that will be remains a mystery, but Kentavious Caldwell-Pope thinks he looks good enough to suit up against the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday.
“He’s making great progress,” Caldwell-Pope said after practice on Monday. “We were just joking a little bit that he could give us like five minutes tomorrow (laughs). But we don’t know nothing about his timetable, or when he’s coming back. He didn’t participate in the practice today, but he did shoot a little bit, and he says he’s feeling good. So we’re just waiting on him and whenever he’s ready.”
LeBron James also joined the Lakers on the road, although his eight-game absence seems a lot smaller when compared to Davis’ 22-game stint on the injury report. The Lakers have struggled to win games without their two star forwards, and it’s unlikely that they’ll buck that trend on this road trip, where they’ll see the Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets, but Dennis Schröder isn’t worried about the team’s future.
“To have everybody back again is going to feel good,” Schröder said. “To have everybody on the road trip, that’s a good sign. To see AD shooting again, it’s just great. We’re trying to hold it down until they come back and try to play a little better, but when they come back, we’re going to be fine.”
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