Los Angeles Lakers: Anthony Davis shines despite scary landing on chase-down block

With a little under 3 minutes left in the first half of Thursday’s Game 3 between the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns, Jae Crowder caused a turnover by disrupting a LeBron James no-look pass to the corner. This lead to Devin Booker taking the Suns into transition.

As Booker went up for the transition layup, Anthony Davis chased him down for an emphatic block.

When Davis came down from his invigorating block, he landed funny as he looked to hyperextend his left leg.

Los Angeles Lakers fans collectively held their breath, as the star big man is no stranger to lower-body injuries. Anthony Davis missed exactly half of the regular season to injuries, most of which were due to his 2-month absence for Achilles tendonitis in his right leg.

Luckily, the injury did not appear to be too serious for Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Even though the landing clearly caused discomfort in what seemed to be AD’s knee, he did not exit the contest. However, Davis did receive a leg wrap as treatment during halftime.

Anthony Davis was not just useful, but dominant, despite being in clearly some amount of pain as he was hobbling and grimacing at times throughout the rest of the game.

AD was playing the aggressive form of basketball that Lakers fans know will be necessary for him to play with if the Lakers want to repeat as NBA Champions. He drove to the hoop, crashed the boards, and got to the line.

Davis converted on 12 of 14 free throws, and many of these trips to the line took place in the second half following the aggravation of his knee.

In his second stellar performance in a row, AD finished with 34 points shooting 50% from the field, and grabbed 11 boards (6 on offense) to go along with the game-high scoring output.

After a physical, high-intensity, high-effort, and for the most part, low-scoring game, the efforts of Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Dennis Schröder, and the rest of the LA Lakers team gave them a series lead with a commanding 109-95 win in a pivotal Game 3.

While there were not a ton of fans, and the broadcast did not show them too much, you could hear how loud and excited the ~7,500 fans in Staples Center were to watch their hometown team win their first playoff game in the arena since 2012.

It was especially heartwarming to hear these fans chant “Kobe!” as the Lakers closed out their first playoff win at Staples since the Black Mamba donned the purple and gold nearly a decade ago.

When asked by TNT’s Chris Haynes in the postgame interview, “How is your knee?”, AD responded, “Come on Chris, you know I’m good.”

The series continues with Game 4 on Sunday afternoon at 3:30 EST.