Dennis Schroder just had the best game of his Los Angeles Lakers career on Wednesday night against the Miami Heat. Schroder led the team with 32 points in 40 minutes to shock Miami while LeBron James sat out with a non-covid illness.
It has not always been great with Schroder but if he can play this kind of basketball in key spots when the team needs him to then the Lakers’ chances of staying afloat without Anthony Davis are much higher. In fact, the team has been able to win three in a row without AD and is now 5-5 since he injured his foot.
Davis has made some potentially worrisome comments about how bad the injury could have been but overall, it appears as if things are progressing well for the Lakers star. Davis has not felt pain and just started running up and down the court, which is a great sign.
AD’s return might be sooner than any of us are expecting. Schroder posted a video on his YouTube channel about his 32-point game and discussed AD’s return prior to the game starting. His choice of wording was very interesting, leading some to believe that Davis could be closer than fans think.
“AD will be back soon,” you say. Obviously, the definition of “soon” is a loose one and does not have an exact timeframe but that is at least promising as it indicates that AD’s recovery time will not be any longer than initially expected.
The Lakers could make some serious noise once Anthony Davis returns.
LeBron James has been playing on an entirely different planet since AD got hurt and prior to that, Davis was the one that was playing like a superhuman. If LeBron continues to play at this level once AD returns then we might actually see the Lakers go on a run in the regular season.
That is especially true if role players like Schroder step up on different nights. They do not need 32 points from a role player every single night but if they can get that once every 4-5 games then LA will be in great shape.
It will be interesting to see how this impacts the trade deadline as well. If Davis returns and the Lakers go on a run before the trade deadline then we could see the team get more aggressive in improving the roster.
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The next few weeks could end up being the most important weeks of the entire season for the Lakers. So hopefully Schroder is right about Davis returning soon because the team needs it.