BY PAT GRAHAM, AP Sports journalist
DENVER (AP) – Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis is due to undergo an MRI on Monday after further exacerbating a sore right Achilles late in the first half of a loss to the Denver Nuggets to 122-105.
“The doctors don’t want to rule anything out,” Davis said on Sunday night. “Everything looks fine, but you still want the MRI to be sure.”
Davis believes he may have made a mistake when he drove to the basket and was fouled by Nugget’s tall man Nikola Jokic. Davis hobbled to the free-throw line, took both shots, then was missed at 2:39. Carefully he walked towards the locker room, which the team later referred to as the Achilles burden.
“To me, all I care about is his health,” said teammate LeBron James. “I want him to be healthy. Our team needs him to be healthy … and to use his diligence on what’s wrong with his injury and be right when he comes back.
“No rush. No schedule. We have no idea about this aspect. I just want him to be healthy and back to full strength.”
When Davis got into the game on Sunday, he was in doubt about what was called right Achilles tendonitis. Davis missed two competitions because of the illness before beating Memphis on Friday.
“Today was the first day it felt pretty good,” said Davis. “I didn’t feel it at all this morning, afternoon, foreplay. I just felt like I was going in the right direction.
“I don’t want to play around with this type of injury. I’m trying to figure out the best steps after getting the information tomorrow. “
Davis had 15 points and four rebounds in the first half against Denver. The game changed complexion as he left, and the nuggets turned a tight competition into an outlier.
“Obviously it’s a tough blow because he played so well until the injury tonight,” said James. “He’s going out for the rest of the game, it’s pretty difficult to get this production going.”
“We’re not asking anyone to learn what AD does. It’s impossible. He’s a special player and talent for a reason. Everyone has to start playing for the collective of the team in the absence of AD.”
The Lakers play in Minnesota on Tuesday.
“We played games without him and won games without him,” said Lakers coach Frank Vogel. “If he misses the time that we haven’t seen yet, we have a lot of firepower to win games.”
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