Los Angeles Lakers: How will Anthony Davis’s injury impact Game 5?

Anthony Davis tweaked his ankle in the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game 4 win.

In the closing moments of Game 4, the Los Angeles Lakers made a collective gasp when Anthony Davis went down clutching his left ankle. AD was able to finish the game, albeit visibly hobbled. How will AD’s injury impact tonight’s game?

Anthony Davis is playing tonight. Had AD suffered a season-ending injury, the Los Angeles Lakers‘ title hopes would have gone down with him.

AD is a throwback. So is Denver.

Very few teams run their offensive systems around their starting center nowadays. Denver is one of them. Nikola Jokic is the greatest passing big man this millennium has ever seen. Jokic’s game is a masterpiece in contrasting eras, an old-school bruiser with a modern game.

So are the Los Angeles Lakers. Except they run their offense through their power forward, Anthony Davis. LeBron James and several other commenters have stated AD needed to become the team’s go-to guy.

I agree.

This is where I disagree with the pundits: AD is better at power forward than at center. His strengths are more formidable when he plays power forward than at center.

Today’s opposing power forwards have no chance to guard him on the block. He can shoot over any power forward. And can still blow by most of them.

At center, his other strengths are somewhat neutralized. There are enough mobile centers in the NBA to mitigate his quickness and ball-handling skills. He becomes an overqualified roll man on spread pick-and-rolls with three shooters surrounding the play.

Still, pretty amazing.

Given the Lakers are notorious for not always making their three-pointers, the Lakers cannot run a modern day offense. Four adequate outside shooters are required to run the standard spread pick-and-roll offense. The Lakers do not have this kind of spacing. Their shooting has always been more theoretical than actual. To account for their shooting woes, the Lakers are playing as fast as ever to compensate for their streaky shooting.

AD thrives in a hyper-speed game. Rajon Rondo and LeBron James copilot the offense. AD is either the outlet man or he runs straight to the rim in transition. AD can either get an easy dunk at the rim or he can attack scrambling defenses in transition as a trail guy.

Surprisingly, their fastest lineups feature Davis at power forward and Howard at center (they play this lineup mostly in the second quarter, but that is changing given Howard is starting). The Lakers are going to run early and often.

This kind of pace bodes well for the Lakers. Denver is the younger team. They are also the slower team. Jokic’s transcendent game is magnified in the half court. Murray’s vast array of spectacular offensive moves is much more needed when the game slows down.

In the event Denver is able to slow down the game, Anthony Davis can normally get his patented turnaround shot off anytime he wants given his height and length. Especially at power forward. Opposing centers give him a little more trouble taking his quick turnaround mid-range shots. Centers are significantly taller and longer than power forwards nowadays.

Remember, it is going to hurt AD’s left ankle a lot more to take this turnaround mid-range shot. AD normally catches the ball then immediately reverse pivots into his jump shot. To achieve such rapid torque, he needs to use his left ankle and hip to quickly turn around. With any kind of pain on the left ankle, it throws off his alignment.

To compensate, he might have to open up his hips to rotate less on the initial catch. The defender will be able to body him up a little bit more if AD’s back is closer to facing the baseline than the sideline. The turnaround jumper is not as threatening if the left ankle gives way.

AD’s injury was minimized in Game 4’s closing moments – at least on offense. AD was an overqualified lob catcher on the Lakers’ smallish lineups. LeBron James and Rajon Rondo handled the lion’s share of the offensive ball-handling responsibilities.

Of course, AD can do this to Jokic at any time. People see this and assume he is better at center because of his nice takes to the basket.

This was before his injury. That take is tough to replicate with a bad left ankle.

AD’s left ankle will be even more tested on defense. This is supposed to be a bigger deal later in the game, where AD plays center and has to switch onto Murray. With a guard as shifty as Murray, a hobbled AD will have trouble corralling the Murray-Jokic pick-and-roll late game. Strong ankles are needed to quickly change direction.

Here is why that is not as relevant.

First off, Lakers coach Frank Vogel will be smart enough to avoid putting AD on Jokic for as long as possible. Even late in the game, Denver has enough “hiding places” such as Paul Millsap or Mason Plumlee to minimize AD’s defensive workload. Even if he has to guard Jokic, an injured ankle will not be a huge liability.

Nikola Jokic will set countless screens for Jamal Murray late in the game. This was happening even before AD’s injury. Given Murray usually goes from left to right on the pick-and-roll, AD will mostly be pushing off his right ankle to corral Murray, which is not his injured left ankle.

Jokic will pop out to the top of the key to knock down outside shots. AD will have trouble closing out on Jokic while recovering to stay in front of him. Again, however, AD is using his right ankle to take the first defensive step if Jokic goes right.

Which is better.

To conclude, AD’s ankle will affect him more on offense than on defense. If he cannot shoot his patented turnaround, the Lakers are in trouble offensively. Whereas his defensive role does not require him to push off his left ankle as much.

On to tonight!