The Los Angeles Lakers played it “by ear” on Wednesday regarding the availability of LeBron James and Anthony Davis leading up to tipoff of their clash with Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. Both players, like Jarred Vanderbilt, were initially listed as questionable to play following Tuesday night's hard-fought loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
James has officially been ruled out for Wednesday's game with a left calf contusion. Davis, on the other hand, will play against the Spurs despite dealing with left hip and adductor issues. Vanderbilt is available for Los Angeles, too.
LeBron James, Anthony Davis dealing with nagging injuries
AD “irritated” his lingering groin/hip injury late in the second quarter against Dallas and exited until halftime. Davis (37 points, 15-of-21 shooting, 11 rebounds) dominated through his 37 minutes on the first leg of the back-to-back. In 40 minutes, LeBron posted 33 points on 14-for-27 shooting, plus eight rebounds and nine assists.
“Some things may be a little irritated,” Darvin Ham said postgame. “He'll see our medical officials and we'll see what the issues are. Monitor that situation.”
“There some moments in the game where I felt it,” noted Davis. “Kind of tweaked it again but we just got to see how it feels going forward. Each and every game, take it a day at a time and then we'll make decisions from there.”
Tuesday marked the Lakers' first contest since they won the NBA Cup. Davis noticeably aggravated his hip during his dominant In-Season Tournament championship performance.
“I was past the hurdle. “Since the Cleveland game, it's been very fine. The first time I felt it or tweaked it again was on Saturday against Indiana. So that was about a three-week stretch.”
LeBron, who has been listed on the injury report with a calf contusion for weeks, said he'll see how his body feels when he wakes up on Wednesday morning before determining his status for San Antonio. Clearly, he didn't quite feel up to play despite casually getting up shots at Frost Bank Center during pregame.
“It's all by ear,” Ham said Tuesday about LeBron's (and Vando's) availability.
James and Davis have each missed only one game this season. Including the IST final, AD leads the NBA in total minutes.
“His health is his wealth,” said LeBron. “We want to make sure we always protect that. He's been fighting through it. Hopefully, it gets better in the near future, more than goes the other way.”
“My hats off to him,” Ham said about AD. “He's one of our team captains. He wants to be there and be available for his team. He's pushing through.”
Despite the monstrous stat lines from LeBron and AD — and quality contributions from Austin Reaves (22 points) and Taurean Prince (14 points, 5-for-6 from 3) — the Lakers (14-10) were bested at the American Airlines Center; their first loss since Nov. 30. Luka Doncic poured in 33 points and 17 assists, Tim Hardaway had 32 points off the bench, while Dante Exum — who entered with eight career 3s — more than made up for the absence of Kyrie Irving, converting seven of his nine attempts from downtown.
The Lakers and Spurs will run it back on Friday, so folks in San Antonio will hopefully be able to see LeBron face off with Wemby at least once this season.
The Spurs (3-19) have lost 17 consecutive games.
Follow Us
Subscribe