In a Tuesday morning surprise, Anthony Davis was downgraded from probable to questionable for the Los Angeles Lakers' matchup against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden (a game that will be missing LeBron James, too).
Davis' status changed, as was the cited ailment. Instead of a “right thigh contusion”, Davis was listed with “flu-like symptoms/non-COVID related illness.”
Coming off a frustratingly 2020-21 campaign in which he could never shake injuries and admittedly suffered from the condensed offseason, Davis seemingly worked himself into the best shape of his 10-year career. The Lakers (and I) had big expectations from their All-Star big man.
For the most part, he's delivered. Davis leads the Lakers in scoring, rebounding, and Win Shares. He's been, far and away, their most dominant defensive player.
More importantly, he hasn't missed a game.
That said, AD has given the Lakers fans and front office plenty of scares. He's steadily thrown his body around the court and, in fact, has hit the deck so often that somebody actually bought a domain name to track his falls.
Anecdotally, Davis seems to have a moment each game when he appears ginger, hobbled, or straight-up in pain.
With news of yet another ailment looming over his status for MSG, let's quickly recap all the different reasons Anthony Davis has been on the Lakers injury report this season.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ZkB0Afb0eKhGDSO3sDGR4?si=62e74a5a85484d55
1) Right Knee Soreness
Davis made his first appearance on the Lakers' injury report for the Oct. 27 matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder (Game 5), due to one of his two injury scares vs. the San Antonio Spurs the night before.
In the first quarter, he was clutching his right shoulder after having a dunk attempt rejected by Jakob Poeltl. Then, in the closing seconds of regulation, Davis banged knees with a Spurs player, which he called “a little stinger” and credited adrenaline for getting him through OT.
He was listed as “probable” with “right knee soreness” for the next four games.
2) Left Ankle Soreness
During the Lakers' Nov. 2 bout with the Houston Rockets, Davis stepped on Alperen Sengun’s foot and tweaked his ankle. After momentarily frightening the Staples Center crowd, he remained in the game, though his movement was a bit hindered.
In the team's next outing, on Nov. 4 vs. OKC, Davis was listed as “probable”, this time with “left ankle soreness”.
3) Right Thumb Sprain
Shortly before halftime of that Thunder game, AD got tangled with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander chasing a long rebound and injured his hand.
Anthony Davis got tangled up chasing a rebound right before halftime and seemed to be in a lot of pain before the Lakers headed to the locker room pic.twitter.com/AgizLs5sYn
— Michael Corvo (@michaelcorvoNBA) November 5, 2021
Davis was a different player in the second half as the Lakers collapsed. Afterward, he said the thumb was “fine” before detailing how it “bent back…Swelled up pretty bad, blood all up in my fingernail, stuff like that, really couldn’t move it.”
He was listed as “questionable” with a “right thumb sprain” for the team's next game vs. the Portland Trail Blazers. He took the floor (with a wrap on his hand), only to exit in the first quarter due to a stomach illness.
“He was battling with the thumb … then he woke up this afternoon with a bit of a stomach bug,” Frank Vogel said. “Said the thumb felt pretty good … then he went and threw up in the back. By the time tip-off came around, he had already thrown up four times.”
Two days later, he was still dealing with the bug while leading the Lakers to a victory over the Charlotte Hornets.
Davis was listed as “probable” with the right thumb sprain for the Hornets game and the four after that.
4) Right Thigh Contusion
Davis was thoroughly outplayed by Giannis Antetokounmpo in the Lakers' loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Nov. 17 — except for one instance: AD yammed it on the two-time MVP on a play that Vogel said should have earned Giannis a flagrant-1 foul.
AD DETONATES OVER GIANNIS 😤 pic.twitter.com/xTDV03MOVy
— ESPN (@espn) November 18, 2021
However, Davis came up limping after the throwdown. Afterward, he said he caught a knee to the hip from Giannis.
Davis was listed as “probable” with a right thigh contusion for the Celtics game and before Sunday's win vs. the Detroit Pistons. If the contusion bothered AD, he certainly hasn't shown it. Davis put up one of the rarest single-game box scores in NBA history and scored 12 points in a dominant fourth quarter.
5) Flu-like Symptoms/non-COVID Related Illness
Davis was still carrying the right thigh contusion designation when the Lakers' first injury report for the Knicks game was released on Monday. As mentioned, that designation was replaced by the flu-like symptoms diagnosis.
Maybe none of this is anything. After all, each ailment appears to be minor, and none have caused AD to miss any time nor seemed to drastically affect his play in the long run. In general, I personally believe the narrative that AD is an injury-prone player is overblown.
Still, coming off a season of debilitating and recurring injuries (albeit more serious ones, causing him to miss 36 games), and with the historically-old Lakers already navigating a litany of health issues, Davis' accumulation of nicks, bruises, and health issues are worth monitoring.
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