Los Angeles Lakers superstar Anthony Davis suffered a groin injury late in his team's grueling 101-99 overtime win over the New York Knicks on Tuesday at Staples Center.

Suddenly, Davis' availability for Wednesday's contest versus the Houston Rockets—and possibly the Lakers' final two games over the weekend at the Indiana Pacers and New Orleans Pelicans—is in doubt.

AD started noticeably limping with about three minutes to go in OT. Considering the stakes of the game and the Lakers' minuscule margin of error as they try to avoid the play-in tournament, Davis gutted it out.

“I’m hurting. Not more so my body, my groin got tight. That was really it. Not sure what it came from. But the groin got a little tight. There's no way I was coming out the game. Big game for us…the situation that we’re in trying to battle for sixth…I didn’t wanna come out, no matter the injury. Finished the game and make sure we secured the win,” Davis shared.

Davis, who played 43 minutes, went toe-to-toe with Knicks All-Star Julius Randle in a physical battle across five periods. AD and Randle—who were teammates in New Orleans—didn't make anything easy for one another, from post catches to positioning scrums to isolations and dribble drives.

Davis finished with 20 points on 8-of-23 shooting and six rebounds for the Lakers.

Randle dropped 31 points on 26 shots, plus eight rebounds and five assists.

All in all, it was a hard night's work for both star bigs.

“It was tight… he wanted to continue,” Frank Vogel said. “We’ll just see how it responds overnight in terms of his availability for tomorrow.”

RECOMMENDED (Article Continues Below)
Pelicans' Jonas Valanciunas, Brandon Ingram, and CJ McCollum all looking angry

Jedd Pagaduan ·

lebron james lakers jarred vanderbilt

Michael Corvo ·

LeBron James (Lakers) as a guy voting

Rexwell Villas ·

Despite the pain, Davis locked in for All-NBA caliber one-on-one defense on Randle on one of the game's biggest plays, the type of dominant defensive display that Davis has increasingly exhibited in the past week.

Davis said he hopes to lace it up Wednesday against Houston, but he didn't sound certain by any means.

“Not sure about tomorrow. I’m gonna get treatment and see how I feel. I wanna say I’m gonna play but it was really bothering me tonight. But we’ll see how I feel tomorrow and then later on in the day. Very, very strong possibility that I fight through it and play since the next day is an off-day. But I also don't want to have this lagging and then now I'm out for a couple games.”

On the bright side, the Lakers should get their other superstar back against Houston, as LeBron James is expected to return after missing five games.