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In the aftermath of the Lakers dropping Game 6 of the first-round against the Phoenix Suns and being eliminated from the NBA playoffs, Anthony Davis — who battled a groin strain for the second half of the series that ultimately forced him to sit out — said it would only be another two weeks or so before he was able to get healthy.
It has now been exactly two weeks since that night, and perhaps not coincidentally, Davis had some good news to share with fans that tuned in for his Twitch stream on Thursday evening (h/t our own Nicole Ganglani for recording this):
"I feel good tho, chat. Groin feels real good. Trust me, we're going to be ready for next year. We're going to be right. We're going to be RIGHT!"
— Nicole Ganglani (@nicoleganglani) June 18, 2021
- A.D. on his groin injury via Twitch pic.twitter.com/Gq4vumPqN3
That’s obviously great news for the Lakers, even if it comes far too late to change their fate this season. A healthy, rested and motivated Davis is a hell of a weapon — as the team saw during their run to the 2020 title — and he and all of his returning teammates are going to have a massive chip on their collective shoulders. Between these comments from Davis and LeBron James’ extremely on-brand style of passive aggressive posts calling out any and all doubters, it’s clear this team is going to be as motivated as they are rested after a longer offseason than even the most fatigued among them would have hoped for.
And now — with his groin recovered — Davis will have months to rehab, train and get ready for another attempted title run. He and the Lakers got extremely lucky that his decision to try and play on his already strained groin didn’t make the injury worse, and now both parties will hopefully be able to put this whole issue in the rearview.
For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.