Update: Per Shams Charania of The Athletic, both LeBron James and Anthony Davis are game-time decisions for the Lakers.
Coming fresh off of an overtime win over the Utah Jazz, the Los Angeles Lakers are playing arguably the most important game of the entire season on Wednesday night as they take on the Los Angeles Clippers.
Both LA teams have the same record with the Clippers having the tiebreaker advantage. A win for the Lake Show would leapfrog the Clippers in the standings and put the team in a position to avoid the NBA Play-In Tournament altogether.
This one game very well could be the difference between the Lakers being a top-six seed and having to play extra games for their playoff lives. All hands need to be on deck for the purple and gold in this one and that might not be what the team gets.
As Lakers fans painfully know, Anthony Davis has not played in back-to-backs since coming back from his foot injury in February. Even with the importance of this game, Davis may not get the chance to suit up. At least that is what ESPN’s Dave McMenamin thinks.
Dave McMenamin doesn’t think AD will play against the Clippers. Said AD still has a bone bruise in his foot and it’s not up to AD or the coaches. pic.twitter.com/09I9ipR0jN
— Laker Central (@LakerCentral365) April 5, 2023
Lakers’ plan for Anthony Davis in this back-to-back is extremely unclear.
McMenamin is extremely plugged-in with the team and he very well could know something that other insiders don’t. After all, this goes against a previous report earlier in the season that the Lakers gave Davis his choice to play one back-to-back and that he chose this one.
The team has not yet declared either way whether or not Davis is playing and the superstar himself left it up for debate after Tuesday’s win over the Jazz. At least there seems to be a chance based on Davis’ comments.
“We’ll all get on a phone call or something tomorrow and go from there.” Anthony Davis hasn’t played in a back-to-back in weeks, we'll see what happens tomorrow.👀 pic.twitter.com/pNsEQJ9n42
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) April 5, 2023
Davis has been the Lakers’ best player as of late and without him the team is going to be hard-pressed to defeat the Los Angeles Clippers. It certainly is not impossible with the injuries that the Clippers are dealing with but it does become a much tougher path.
It also would be a bit disheartening to see the purple and gold willingly suit up not at full strength in the most important regular-season game in quite some time. If there was ever an exception to a rule, it would be for tonight’s game.
That being said if Davis does go out and play and injures his foot then fans will all be saying that the team should have sat him for the playoffs. It is truly a lose-lose situation for the Lake Show that fans do not currently have any clarity on.