An Anthony Davis injury from Tuesday night has L.A. Lakers fans pretty worried about what it could mean.
Toward the end of the third quarter, Davis was playing defense and got undercut as Julius Randle drove to the basket. He got his legs knocked out from under him and came down hard on his tailbone.
After limping off the court, he slowly made his way back to the locker room. Davis would not return to the game and could end up missing games due to this injury.
Anthony Davis goes up for a block but falls on his tailbone and limps off the court with help pic.twitter.com/DazHg4Rc9F
— NBA RETWEET (@RTNBA) January 8, 2020
Anthony Davis injury update from L.A. Lakers
After the game, it was announced by the Lakers that Davis had suffered a sacral contusion. This is a bruise of the sacrum bone that is near the bottom of the spine.
As for a timetable for return, this is an injury that doesn’t heal right away. It can take up to four weeks to heal properly, meaning he could now miss some significant time.
Anthony Davis's X-Rays were negative, but he's sore, source says.
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) January 8, 2020
The Lakers are going to wait until Wednesday (January 8) to make an official statement on how long he could be out, but the early prognosis is not a good one.
NBA insider Chris Haynes just posted an additional update to his Twitter account after speaking with Davis as he left the arena on Tuesday night. That tweet is shared below:
Anthony Davis was escorted out of the arena laying on the bed of a motor carrier. “I’m fine,” he told Yahoo Sports while acknowledging he’ll miss some time.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) January 8, 2020
That acknowledgment is a big deal, as it is rare that a player openly admits that he is going to miss time due to an injury that has just taken place. It’s also understandable after watching the injury happen, as he came down very hard on the court.
The Lakers ended up winning the game very easily, beating the Knicks 117-87 to move to 30-7 on the season. It is now the sixth straight win for the Lakers and it has the team 4 1/2 games ahead of the Denver Nuggets for first place in the Western Conference.
Next up, the L.A. Lakers have a game against the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night (January 10), but the expectation is that Anthony Davis won’t be available to the team.
When we hear an update from the team on an exact timetable for how long Davis will be out, we will be sure to update the article.