Tag: Anthony Davis

Anthony Davis won’t play in Tuesday’s Lakers vs. Warriors game

The Lakers will again be short-handed in Tuesday’s pivotal game against the Warriors.

With the 2023-24 regular season almost over, the Los Angeles Lakers continue to fight for optimal seeding in the Western Conference playoffs. They are ninth with a 45-34 record, and they trail the eighth-place Sacramento Kings by one-half game.

At the same time, they’re trying to hold off the 10th-place Golden State Warriors, who are 1 1/2 games behind them. Finishing 10th would mean visiting Golden State in the first game of the play-in tournament instead of playing it at Crypto.com Arena.

Finishing at least ninth would likely involve defeating the Warriors on Tuesday. Unfortunately for the Lakers, Anthony Davis will not play after getting hit in the eye early in Sunday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The good news, per head coach Darvin Ham, is Davis isn’t in the NBA’s concussion protocol.

Davis left Sunday’s contest after the end of the first quarter. At the time, L.A. trailed by just four points, but they soon found themselves getting outscored 46-27 in the second quarter.

The last time the Lakers played the Warriors, Davis also was hit in the eye late in the first quarter. He left afterward and didn’t return. Without him, their defense greatly suffered, resulting in a six-point lead at the end of the first period turning into a 128-121 loss.

2026 Georgia linebacker set to visit Ohio State this weekend

Another linebacker recruit on the prowl in Columbus this weekend. #GoBucks

Ohio State promoting James Laurinaitis to linebacker has already paid dividends on the recruiting trail.

The Buckeyes landed a commitment from 2025 four-star linebacker, Tarvos Alford, in late March. Ohio State also locked into a June visit with 2025 five-star linebacker, Johan Williams, on Sunday.

Another linebacker is set to visit Ohio State as Anthony Davis, a four-star linebacker in the 2026 class, announced on Tuesday that he will visit the Columbus this weekend as well.

The 6-foot-1, 190 pound linebacker attends Grayson high school in Georgia, and is the 25th ranked linebacker in the 2026 class on On3 Industry rankings.

Davis has received a lot of interest from programs around the country as he already has 24 offers. This list includes Auburn, Tennessee, Oregon, Michigan, and Notre Dame.

The Buckeyes haven’t put out an offer to Davis yet. However, with the talented linebacker set to visit this weekend, it appears likely that an offer from Ohio State will come soon.

Lakers are hopeful Anthony Davis will return on Tuesday vs. Warriors

Although Anthony Davis suffered an eye injury in Sunday’s loss to the Timberwolves, the Lakers hope he will be able to play on Tuesday.

After winning four games in a row and nine of their last 10, the Los Angeles Lakers had their momentum come to a screeching halt, at least for the moment, on Sunday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

They were without LeBron James, who was ruled out prior to the tip because of an illness. Then Anthony Davis was hit in the eye and didn’t play past the first quarter. As a result, the Lakers didn’t have enough firepower to challenge the Timberwolves and lost by 10 points.

This wasn’t the first time Davis has gotten hit in the eye this season. He suffered a similar injury on March 16 versus the Golden State Warriors, who will be L.A.’s opponent on Tuesday.

Per Dave McMenamin of ESPN, the team is optimistic Davis will be able to play on Tuesday.

The Lakers have fallen back into ninth place in the Western Conference after Sunday’s loss. Therefore, if they are to have any chance of finishing in the upper bracket of the play-in tournament picture, let alone avoiding the play-in tournament, they will need to win each of their remaining three regular-season games.

That would mean both James and Davis will need to be available for each of those contests.

Nick Wright: Anthony Davis is NBA’s best defensive player

Anthony Davis may not win this year’s Defensive Player of the Year award, but an argument can be made that he’s the NBA’s best defender.

Who will win this season’s Defensive Player of the Year award in the NBA? In all likelihood, it will be Rudy Gobert, who has helped the Minnesota Timberwolves rank first in defensive rating and given them a real shot at finishing in first place in the Western Conference.

However, there are those who believe Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers is being disrespected in the conversation regarding who deserves to win the award.

Not only is Davis averaging more blocks per game than Gobert, he also has the ability to step out to the perimeter and guard players at multiple positions. He can even stop small guards such as Stephen Curry when needed, as he did in last season’s playoffs.

On Tuesday versus the Milwaukee Bucks, he rejected Damian Lillard’s game-winning layup attempt at the end of the first overtime. The Lakers ended up winning 128-124 in two overtimes, and Davis finished with four blocks and 23 rebounds.

On Fox Sports 1’s “First Things First,” Nick Wright praised his defensive performance while calling him “the best defensive player on the planet.”

Davis sat out Wednesday’s game versus the Memphis Grizzlies, and without him, Los Angeles had defensive issues, even though it won fairly easily. It gave up 56 points in the paint and surrendered over 30 points in three out of four quarters.

In the end, he likely will not win the award because, overall, the Lakers are a mediocre defensive team. But without Davis, they would likely be one of the NBA’s worst defensive squads.

Anthony Davis will not play in Wednesday’s Lakers vs. Grizzlies game

After leading the Lakers to an improbable win over the Bucks on Tuesday, Anthony Davis will not play on Wednesday against the Grizzlies.

The Los Angeles Lakers pulled off a comeback for the ages on Tuesday night. They overcame a 19-point deficit in the fourth quarter to defeat Giannis Antetokounmpo and the surging Milwaukee Bucks in two overtimes — without LeBron James, who sat out because of ankle soreness.

Anthony Davis, who has been having another sensational season, led the way with 34 points, 23 rebounds, four blocked shots and two steals in 52 minutes. He appeared to tweak his knee late in regulation, but despite being visibly in pain, he continued to play, and he played very well despite not shooting a high percentage.

While James will return to action on Wednesday against the Memphis Grizzlies, Davis will not play.

Although Davis has been infamously injury-prone, this will be only the fifth game he has missed all season.

He is averaging 24.7 points, 12.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.4 blocked shots a game while shooting 55.3% from the field and 81.5% from the free throw line.

NBA Twitter reacts to Lakers’ double overtime win over Bucks: ‘AD put the city of LA on his back’

Here’s how NBA Twitter reacted to the Lakers beating the Bucks after a wild double-overtime game in Milwaukee.

The Lakers came back from down 19 without LeBron James to beat the Bucks in Milwaukee after a double-overtime thriller 128-124.

Anthony Davis led the way for the Lakers with a massive double-double of 34 points and 23 rebounds, while playing an incredible 52 minutes — the most by a Laker since Kobe Bryant in 2012.

Here’s how NBA Twitter reacted to a huge win for LA’s team.

Anthony Davis has a big goal for Lakers’ upcoming six-game road trip

Anthony Davis is setting the bar high for the Lakers on their upcoming six-game road trip.

With a three-game winning streak under their belts, the Los Angeles Lakers head out on a six-game road trip that begins with a battle against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday.

The Bucks are in second place in the Eastern Conference and have been on a roll since the All-Star break. They’ll also want revenge after the Lakers beat them without LeBron James a the start of the month.

Los Angeles may be without James again on Tuesday; he’s listed as doubtful due to ankle soreness. Regardless, Anthony Davis wants his team to go undefeated on this trip, which will take them into April (at 1:54).

“Six,” Davis said when asked how many wins he wants on this trip. “ We want to win every game. I think on this trip, we beat everybody. … So we know we’re capable, but it’s the road. It’s going to be tough, but we got the capability of winning each game. We got to approach it that way.”

L.A. has virtually no shot at finishing sixth in the Western Conference (it is in ninth place and is three games behind the sixth-place Sacramento Kings). But it needs to be playing its best basketball heading into the play-in tournament if it is to have a shot at making the playoffs and going on a deep run there.

Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves were unhappy with Lakers’ defense vs. Pacers

The Lakers beat the Pacers on Sunday despite giving up 145 points, and Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves said they simply need to be better.

The Los Angeles Lakers earned their third win in a row on Sunday by getting past the Indiana Pacers, 150-145. They led by as many as 19 points in the second half, but withstood a furious Indiana rally in the final minutes to improve to 39-32.

The bright spot was the fact Los Angeles scored 150 points, its highest scoring output since the 1986-87 season, even though D’Angelo Russell sat out due to illness. The downside was that, well, it gave up 145 points.

Anthony Davis was downright dominant with 36 points and 16 rebounds. When he was asked about his team scoring 150 points, he turned the attention to the defensive end of the floor.

“(We were) just terrible defensively,” Davis said. “They hit some shots toward the end, some deep 3s. We can do what we want offensively, as you can see tonight, but we have to be able to defend, especially when we’re up on a team like that. Don’t try to give them no life.

“But at this point in this season, a win is a win and we’ll take it but we have to learn from it as well.”

Guard Austin Reaves, who stepped up in Russell’s absence, agreed.

Via Lakers Nation:

“You never want to give up 145,” Reaves said. “They got hot late, I think with under a minute left they probably hit three or four 3s, maybe more.

“But we just got to be better on the ball, in rotations and really just collectively guard as a team. When we do that, you got AD back there making things tough in the paint, we’re a good defensive team or are defensive-minded.”

While the Lakers have been playing at an elite level offensively over the past two months, they have ranked near the bottom of the NBA in multiple defensive categories. They will need to step things up on that end of the court in order to reach the playoffs and do some real damage there.

Anthony Davis is named Western Conference Player of the Week

Lakers superstar big man Anthony Davis was rewarded for his excellent play during his team’s three-game winning streak.

The Los Angeles Lakers have rebounded from costly losses to the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors to win three games in a row. As a result, they have firm control of ninth place in the Western Conference and lead the 10th-place Warriors by 2 1/2 games.

While a number of other Lakers players have played well in their last three games, Anthony Davis has led the way. He has averaged 27 points on a ridiculous 68.6% field-goal shooting, 16.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2 blocked shots a game during this current winning streak.

As a result of that production, he was named the Western Conference Player of the Week on Monday.

The superstar big man started last week with 22 points, 15 rebounds and six assists in Monday’s blowout win over the Atlanta Hawks. When L.A. wrestled its way past the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday, he devoured 19 rebounds while scoring 23 points and rejecting four shots.

In Sunday’s victory over the Indiana Pacers, Davis had 16 rebounds, but he was also dominant offensively with 36 points.

On the season, he’s averaging 24.6 points while shooting 55.8% overall, 12.5 boards, 3.6 assists and 2.4 blocks per contest.

This is the 10th time he has won the Western Conference Player of the Week award.

Anthony Davis, D’Angelo Russell: LeBron James is locked in

Anthony Davis and D’Angelo Russell can sense that LeBron James is raising his game a notch or two with the postseason nearing.

There are times when it seems LeBron James is conserving his energy to the point where his critics accuse him of lacking focus or even not caring. But he has been playing brilliant basketball, at least statistically, this season, and it has held up to this late point of the season.

The 39-year-old is averaging 25.5 points, 8.1 assists and 7.2 rebounds a game this season, and his efficiency (53.2% from the field and 40.6% from 3-point range) is higher than it has been in years. In fact, so far in March, he’s shooting an outstanding 58.8% while putting up 26.9 points, 9.6 dimes and 8.0 rebounds per contest.

Anthony Davis says James is starting to get into playoff mode.

Via Lakers Nation:

“Bron is Bron,” Davis said. “Obviously, it’s that time of the year. Shooting the ball extremely well. In attack mode finding guys. He’s been locked in defensively. So it’s that time of year, especially for us, where every game is a playoff game. So the time of the year, extensively lock in and get the job done.”

Davis has previously witnessed James playing with a heightened sense of urgency during the postseason and leading into the playoffs, most notably when the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA championship in 2020. Even last season, when he was dealing with a foot injury, James ramped up his production and helped them reach the Western Conference finals.

Starting guard D’Angelo Russell can also sense that James is ratcheting things up a notch or two.

“I mean, yeah,” Russell said. “His play is obviously showing that. Knowing that there’s what 13 or 14 games left? I think everybody has that in the back of their minds knowing that we’re coming to the end of the season, regular season, and whatnot. Trying to get in playoff form mentally and physically. Physically is always there, mentally I feel like he’s always there as well. I mean, he’s still dominates the game at that age, so I still feel like he’s there, too.”

With L.A. fighting to make sure it reaches the play-in tournament and finishes with as high a seed as possible, it will need James to continue to show a heightened sense of urgency. But what it needs even more so is good health and healthy production from everyone else if it is to duplicate last spring’s unexpected run.