The Los Angeles Lakers took care of business on Tuesday night by defeating the New Orleans Pelicans in the Play-In Tournament and securing the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference. On Saturday, Anthony Davis and company face off against the reigning champion Denver Nuggets in a rematch of the 2023 Conference Finals. And hopefully by Saturday, Davis can be at full strength.
Davis suffered back spasms on Sunday afternoon in the regular season finale against the Pelicans but had no doubt he would play in the Play-In Game. And while he did wind up playing 40 minutes, Davis did not look quite as dominant as his normal self. He finished with 20 points on 6-of-16 from the field with 15 rebounds and three blocks, which can be legitimately argued as a down night given how incredible he has been this season.
The Lakers star spoke about how he felt following the game, saying that the injury absolutely affected him but that it is not a long-term concern, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:
“It’s good that we won tonight to get a couple days to get it back right… Did feel it tonight with a lot of the jumping and stuff. I’m not sure if anyone here has had back spasms, but it’s tough. You try to keep it as loose as possible but the constant moving, twisting and turning and stuff like that, just kind of limited me a little bit. But still tried to go out there and be effecting and help the team win. But I feel like I’ll be 100% as far as the back come Saturday.”
Davis is not the type of player to make any excuses for an off night, but even he couldn’t help but admit that his shooting percentage was affected by how his back was feeling:
“Yeah. I mean, I had some good looks. Easy little touch shots around the rim that I just missed. I think where it affected me most was just as far as movement trying to get offensive rebounds and things like that, my presence at the rim. It was just tough. But we got it done. We got it done and like I said, I’ll have a couple days now to kind of get it back to normal and be ready for Saturday.”
Having three full days off between the win and Game 1 against the Nuggets is a massive win for Davis. He’ll need all the strength and energy he can get with a tough task ahead. Having any sort of lingering back issue could be a death sentence having to face off against the likely MVP in Nikola Jokic.
Lakers-Nuggets first round schedule and TV Info
Now, the Lakers can look ahead to their first round series against the Nuggets. Below is the schedule for the entire series.
Game 1: Lakers at Nuggets, Saturday, April 20, 2024, 5:30 p.m. PT, ABC
Game 2: Lakers at Nuggets, Monday, April 22, 2024, 7 p.m. PT, TNT
Game 3: Nuggets at Lakers, Thursday, April 25, 2024, 7 p.m. PT, TNT
Game 4: Nuggets at Lakers, Saturday, April 27, 2024, 5:30 p.m. PT, ABC
Game 5 (if necessary): Lakers at Nuggets, TBD, TBD
Game 6 (if necessary): Nuggets at Lakers, TBD, TBD
Game 7 (if necessary): Lakers at Nuggets, TBD, TNT
More must-reads: