Anthony Davis was uncertain whether the foot injury he suffered during Monday loss to Detroit would linger, projecting a different tone than the times he had suffered minor injuries in the past.
“I’m going to talk to my coach and just find out what exactly is going on,” Davis said after the 115-103 Lakers loss. “I’ve been running it since this summer, honestly, and my goal for every game is to be on the floor. And I just landed right on the spot that killed me. So, we’ll figure it out.”
Davis wobbled after some awkward landings on his left foot, falling to the ground and forcing the Lakers to call a timeout midway through the fourth quarter. Davis stayed on the court and grabbed at the back of his heel before standing up and stretching.
He was visibly frustrated, hitting the padding on the basket bar. But he finished the game.
Davis was unsure of the severity.
“…We’ll take it day by day and see how it feels and where it goes,” Davis said.
He finished with 37 points and nine rebounds.
LeBron James was later asked how the Lakers would cope if Davis was gone.
“He’s not out,” Davis said from the locker to James’ left.
Read more: Anthony Davis and LeBron James can’t mask the Lakers’ problems in a loss to the Pistons
However, the possibility would leave the Lakers, already thin in the frontcourt, without much more.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know,” James said when asked about the potential impact.
Even with Davis, the Lakers have been a bad defensive team so far this season. In addition to the injury, Davis was clearly frustrated.
“We’re just two different teams now,” he said. “One game we’re this team that showed they can be one of the better teams in the league. Then the next, we’re this team that — I don’t even know who we are. So, we just have to be better. It’s on the starters…but we just have to be better as players to come out, execute the game plan and do what we have to do on both ends of the floor. We did it, some halves we don’t, some quarters we do, some quarters we don’t.
“So we have to put a full 48 (minutes) together and we can’t keep doing that if we expect to do anything this season.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
