Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis suffered an abdominal muscle strain during the team’s 118-104 loss against the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday, the Lakers announced. Davis had an MRI on Wednesday, and, rather than staying with the team for the remainder of its road trip, he will fly back to Los Angeles, where he will be reevaluated in approximately one week.
The injury occurred in the first quarter in Philadelphia. With 2:10 left in the period, he subbed out, went straight to the locker room and did not return.
The Lakers, who are 26-19 on the season and fifth in the West, will visit the Washington Wizards on Thursday and the New York Knicks on Saturday before heading back to L.A. to visit the Los Angeles Clippers next Tuesday. If Davis is reevaluated in exactly a week, then he will miss all of those games but could potentially return for the Lakers’ home game against the Golden State Warriors next Thursday.
Davis, 31, has appeared in 42 of Los Angeles’ 45 games this season and averaged 25.7 points, 11.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.3 steals and 2.1 blocks in 34.3 minutes per game. He will all but certainly make his 10th All-Star team when the reserves are announced on Thursday, and he has a good chance of making his sixth All-NBA team, too.
With Davis on the court this season, the Lakers have outscored opponents by 1.6 points per 100 possessions in non-garbage-time minutes, per Cleaning The Glass. With him off the court, they have been outscored by 5.6 points per 100 possessions and defended at a bottom-five level.
In the three games that Davis missed, backup center Jaxson Hayes started in his place. It is worth noting, though, that on Wednesday the Lakers started the second half with forward Dorian Finney-Smith in Davis’ spot against the Sixers (who were also playing small, with both Joel Embiid and Andre Drummond sidelined).
