The Los Angeles Lakers have arguably their biggest game of the season on Wednesday night against their in-town rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers.
Unfortunately, they could be without star big man Anthony Davis for the contest, as there’s still apparently a bone bruise in his foot.
“There’s still a bone bruise in that foot,” ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported. “And the medical kind of diagnosis is overuse will spike the chance of reinjuring it to the point where the pain level is not something that he can play with, which could lead to him missing a chunk of time. You miss a chunk of time this time of the year, it’s all for naught. And so, I’m not convinced that you’ll see him against the Clippers.”
Davis has seemingly been hampered all season long by different ailments, but he’s toughed things out to play in 53 games so far. He missed 20 straight games earlier this season after suffering a foot injury against the Denver Nuggets in the middle of December.
He had been playing like a prime MVP candidate and only missed three games prior to going down with the injury. During a recent re-evaluation, his right foot did not show “significant healing.” The Lakers will want to be as careful as possible with him as they prepare for a potential playoff run.
The Lakers are currently in seventh place in the Western Conference, though they have the same 41-38 record as the Clippers, who are ahead of them in sixth place.
For a brief period of time after their thrilling overtime win on Tuesday night against the Utah Jazz, the Lakers were actually in sixth place, but the Golden State Warriors took care of business against the Oklahoma City Thunder to jump both the Lakers and Clippers and move back into a playoff spot.
The Clippers sit in sixth in the West right now due to them holding the tiebreaker over the Lakers, which they earned by winning the first three contests between the two teams to clinch the season series. That makes Wednesday’s contest even more of a must-win game for the Lakers.
Davis is currently putting up 26.5 points, 12.4 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game this season on 56.9 percent shooting from the field.
