LOS ANGELES – Since Anthony Davis was negotiated with the Los Angeles Lakers, the great man has taken a two-pronged approach to renewing his image: gaining the reputation of a winner and abandoning his reputation for injury.
Davis did this last year, crowning a season in which he struggled with physical pain to win the first NBA championship of his career.
He’s learning in his second season with the Lakers that sometimes giving yourself time to deal with an injury is the best thing you can do to achieve long-term success.
That has been the case with the All-Star seven times this week, with Davis being left out of the Lakers’ last two games because of a tendon in his right Achilles tendon.
“I think all the other games … I wanted to play. This is just a different circumstance, being an Achilles. If it were a quadruple or a finger, anything like that, I wouldn’t mind playing,” Davis said Thursday , speaking to reporters for the first time since the injury was revealed on Sunday.
“But I really don’t want to play with an Achilles. Today was the first day that we were able to practice, meet some guys to really test.
“I just don’t want to play a game where I still feel and then hurt myself and now I’m out of the playoffs or whatever or for several weeks, where it’s something I can’t control and maintain now, where you lose two or three games at the beginning of the season or mid-season and be ready for the rest of the season. “
The Lakers maintained their winning streak without him, beating the Oklahoma City Thunder twice – but needing to recover from initial deficits and go to overtime in both games for that.
While the six-game streak brought the Lakers overall record to 20-6 – giving them the league’s second best record, just half a game behind Utah Jazz – coach Frank Vogel scheduled a rare workout on Thursday to get some work for Davis and improving the group.
“We try to have a day when we can have a light load on his legs, but still be productive and improve our performance,” said Vogel. “The message to the team was: ‘Good enough, but not enough’. Right? We are good enough to win these games, but by our standards, we are not playing well. So we have a light job [Thursday] to improve that execution while we try to keep them up to date. “
Davis said he had been experiencing pain around the right calf muscle for “a few weeks” and had an ultrasound that confirmed the diagnosis of tendonosis.
“He continued to be very sore. Pushing. Even walking, obviously running, jumping, anything like that, I would feel,” said Davis. “So it’s just more pain and just letting it go.”
The Lakers host the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, another young team like the Thunder, hovering around 0.500, which can mark their season by eliminating the champions.
Davis said he would see how his body would respond to Thursday’s training and determine his game status near the time of the game.
“We just did a drilling job, non-contact drilling job, that he did everything. He looked fine, ”said Vogel. “We will see how he feels tomorrow, before making any decision about the game.”