The Los Angeles Lakers entered Monday's contest vs. the Miami Heat at the Kaseya Center with a depleted rotation — especially in the frontcourt. To make matters more complicated, Anthony Davis was forced to exit the proceedings after 25 minutes.

Thanks to an electric LeBron James (30 points), a fully-back Austin Reaves (23/10/8), and quality defensive contributions from Christian Wood and Cam Reddish, the Lakers nearly overcame a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit — and D'Angelo Russell's ejection amid a technical foul barrage. With the Heat leading 108-107, Reddish's would-be buzzer-beater clanked off the rim, dropping the Lakers to 3-4 and 0-4 away from home.

The loss stings, but Darvin Ham and the Lakers were generally proud of their fight. The nature of Davis' injury is far more important.

AD tweaked his leg in the second quarter in an “awkward” sequence involving Bam Adebayo and Jamie Jaquez Jr. Davis limped up and down a few times before being escorted to the locker room. He twice tried to return after halftime. He was shut down for good with 1:41 left in the third quarter. Davis watched engagingly from the bench as the Lakers made their comeback bid.

Fortunately, AD and the Lakers don't sound overly concerned about the injury.

“He's in good spirits,” said Ham, who declined to provide a detailed update. “We'll let our medical team, performance team do what they need to do, and then have an answer at a later time.”

The Lakers initially labeled the injury a “hip spasm.” Davis specified that his left adductor “spazzed up.”

“Just an awkward play. I just felt it right away, just off the spin … Spazzed up but felt fine coming out of halftime. Then it kind of just like, spazzed up again. Went to go get wrapped up. Felt fine for a longer stint, three minutes. Kind of just spazzed up again. … I'll be fine.”

“I feel confident. I know my body. Obviously, when you sleep, things can calm down or (go) awry. But I'm very optimistic. I got it loose and got it feeling good.”

Davis, who finished with 9 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists in 25 minutes, said he never fretted about further aggravating the injury when attempting to stay in the game.

“I don't even think that was a conversation. It was just, ‘How you feel?' … We did several things to get it feeling good. Felt great. Just kinda spazzed up two more times. It wasn't even a conversation of, ‘Can I make it worse?' It was just basically going off feel.'”

Davis averaged 26.3 points, 13.0 rebounds, and 3.7 blocks per game over the first six games. His 38.8 minutes per game would be the highest mark of his career. He insisted the heavy workload is unrelated to the adductor injury.

“I actually had been feeling great even though I’ve been playing 40 minutes, 42 or whatever. I’ve been feeling really good. It’s just an awkward play.”

Davis pledged to be available for the Lakers against the Houston Rockets.

“I'll be ready for Wednesday, for sure.”