Anthony Davis' importance to Lakers made clear after injury exit

After Tuesday's loss, LeBron James admitted his team was lost for direction when Davis left the game in the first quarter. 

"When our best player goes out, it's always challenging," James said, via ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "If he's out from the beginning, we have a game plan set. We know what to expect, we know what our lineup is going to be. But when AD or any one of our guys go down throughout the course of a game, it's just tough."

James said he didn't realize Davis was ruled out of the game until he was informed of the big man's injury at halftime. When asked about his level of concern, the optimistic James said, "He'll be fine."

The Lakers can ill-afford to be without Davis for an extended period. They don't have the personnel to replicate what he does on both ends of the floor. It also doesn't help that the Western Conference standings are incredibly tight. The Lakers could realistically drop to the eighth or ninth seed if Davis were to miss even five games. 

The Kentucky alum has been relatively healthy over his past two seasons. He appeared in a career-high 76 games last year and has played 42 of the Lakers' 45 games this year. Davis had earned the reputation of being injury-prone early in his career.