Before the Lakers took on the Denver Nuggets for the first time in at least a week on Sunday night, Achilles tendonist Anthony Davis had to deal with ‘feeling completely good’ all day.
‘I did not feel anything this morning, afternoon, forecast, nothing. I just felt like we were in the right direction on the treatment side and the rehabilitation side, ”Davis said.
That all changed in the second quarter in Denver, when Davis had an Achilles tendon that forced him to leave the game for the rest of the evening and an MRI would be needed on Monday. He clearly tries to maintain a positive attitude about it, but admits that the situation is not pleasant.
“It’s another setback, but it’s part of the game,” Davis said. ‘(It’s) more so frustrating that I can not go there to play, but you do not want to mess with these kinds of injuries. It is therefore trying to find out the best steps after receiving the information from the MRI tomorrow. ”
Davis says he is not worried about the long-term injury and that he does not regret his decision to continue playing on it, even after experiencing pain during the previous game against the Memphis Grizzlies, his first fullback in the series . after missing the previous two with the same injury.
“I felt good to come back against Memphis for the first time, and I’m going to do the same thing, the same steps to get it right again,” Davis said. ‘I feel like I’m ready to go, and training staff feel like I’m ready to go. I picked up the day before the Memphis game and it feels good, wakes up the next day and feels good.
‘I think we took all the right steps to come back, and after the Memphis game, it felt good the next day. It felt good yesterday and to this day it has felt good. “It felt good in the first quarter, it felt good from the time I was in the second quarter until the last game,” Davis added. “I think it was just the way I moved and walked that made the injury worse, but I don’t think I rushed back.”
Head coach Frank Vogel also did not want the decision to let Davis play. He reiterated that they had talked to the medical staff about it and that the Lakers would not let Davis get up if they thought the injury was likely to get worse.
“If the medical team does not want to play him, he plays,” Vogel said.
Yet Davis said he wants to be ‘smarter’ about how he handles his return next time, even while also making it (somewhat paradoxically) clear that he wants to return quickly and says he would rather consider treatment five times a day. to get. of the current three times “to try to get it back where it needs to be.” He said the training staff put him on ice after the game and put extra hoists in his shoes – which he also wore in games – to relieve the pressure on his Achilles tendon. At night he slept in a sleeve that he said kept the tendon bent so that it did not “shorten”.
Davis does everything because he believes that star players should play when they can, and he not only wants to help his team on the track, but also the label “prone to injuries” with which he marked a large part of his career is, skud. .
‘I just overcame it last year and even my last few years in New Orleans, by just playing injuries and knowing what my body can take, what it can handle, and if it’s something minor, that’s fine, I will will play there, ”said Davis. ‘I felt I was good enough to go and play there … But this injury is a little different. Because it’s the Achilles and you definitely want to make sure it does not lead to worse, but I put a lot of pressure on myself to go play there.
“If I feel I can go there, I will do it, just because I want to help my team. And I can help my team from the sidelines, but I think I’m more effective when I’m on the floor. And they pay me to play. I go there and try to compete at the highest level and do what I can to help this team, ”Davis continued. “If that means I go there and play through some little bumps and bruises, then that’s what it is.”
However, his co-star LeBron James says Davis should not push himself to come back at the expense of his long-term health or the risk of further injury. He says it’s up to the Lakers to play basketball at championship level, whether Davis is on the floor or not, and although no player can replace his production, he can try to win games per committee while Davis tries to recover.
“For me, it’s just his health. I want him to be healthy. “Our team needs him to be healthy,” said James. “He needs to make sure he takes all the precautions and does carefully what he does with his injury, and be ready when he comes back. So no rush, no grid. We have no idea from that aspect, but we just want him to be healthy and be at full strength again. ”
And as much as Davis wants to play and stay optimistic, it seems that this scare may have woken up a bit.
“This one is a little bit different than I feel I should be smarter, and not want to go there to be Superman and risk it in the long run,” Davis said. ‘But it’s all (depending) on the MRI tomorrow. I hope this is good information and I will be there sooner rather than later. ”
The Lakers certainly hope so too. They will only be well served to ensure that Davis is healthy whenever he does.
For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.