The Los Angeles Lakers have been playing better as of late with much more effort than we saw coming out of the All-Star break, leading to a surprising boost of morale amongst the team’s fans but most importantly, within the team as well. However, that stretch of improvements have come in a four-game stretch where the Lakers only won two with the team still trying to secure its first two-game winning streak since Jan. 7th. One loss came as the Lakers failed to finish a well-played game they had against the Wizards, with the other loss coming last night as the purple-and-gold showed a ton of fight and resolve without LeBron James playing but ultimately taking the “L” against James Harden, Joel Embiid, and the higher-powered 76ers. The Lakers have also, of course, been without Anthony Davis as he continues to rehab the mid-foot sprain that has kept him out since Feb. 16th.
Luckily, his rehab has shown no signs of setbacks via updates we’ve received from Frank Vogel and the team, with a recent ESPN report showing even more optimism that Davis will be on the floor before we know it.
Dave McMenamin specifically said the following:
If everything continues to progress well in Davis’ rehab, the All-Star big man could be suiting up for games by the first week of April, at the earliest, sources told ESPN.
April 1st comes on a Friday, with the Lakers hosting the New Orleans Pelicans that evening. It’d be quite beneficial for that to be the game that Anthony Davis returns in as those two teams are currently jostling for the right to host their first play-in game together. As it currently stands, the 10th-seeded Pelicans are only half a game back of the 9th-seeded Lakers (the two teams will play this Sunday preceding that April 1st game).
Of course, the Lakers will welcome Davis’ services much earlier than that if they can get them. Making the play-in tournament isn’t even guaranteed at this point as the San Antonio Spurs (2 games back of the Lakers) and the Portland Trail Blazers (3.5 games back) are still not out of it.
But given how plugged in McMenamin is, it seems as if that April 1st game could be the earliest game we see Davis back in. After that, the Lakers play the Nuggets on April 3rd at home, the Suns on April 5th on the road, the Warriors on April 7th on the road, the Thunder on April 8th at home, and then the final game will be at home against the Nuggets on April 10th.
We’ll continue to update the site with any further news regarding Anthony Davis and his return from injury.
