Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis has aggravated right Achilles tendinosis, an ESPN source told Adrian Wojnarowski.
Davis lost two games earlier this week due to injury. The Lakers officially classified it as a certain Achilles strain and said Davis will have an MRI scan on Monday.
Davis, 27, was listed as questionable before the game, but he still started with the Lakers looking to extend their streak of seven straight wins.
Davis hit Nikola Jokic at the end of the second quarter and kicked his legs with the Nuggets’ pivot – Jokic’s right knee touched Davis’s right quadrilateral. When Davis recovered his dribble after the foul was called and stuck his foot in, he seemed to aggravate his right leg. He grabbed his leg below the calf after the piece was finished.
Davis stayed in the game to make two free throws, doing both, and then left with 2:36 remaining in the second half and hobbled into the locker room with Lakers assistant sports trainer Jon Ishop at his side.
The nine-year-old veteran has been experiencing discomfort in his right leg for weeks and had an ultrasound last weekend, which confirmed the injury.
Before returning to play in Friday’s 115-105 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies, when he scored 35 points from 16 of 27 shots – two at his high of the season – Davis detailed his reasoning process about the injury with reporters.
“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 . “But I really don’t want to play with an Achilles.”
Davis played 35 minutes against the Grizzlies, but missed out on the final stretch with victory in the hand after suffering pain.
“You can leave, obviously with rest and things like that, but I’m not trying to rest, so I just try to keep it as loose as possible,” said Davis on Friday.
Davis said his Achilles tendon was not compromised, but the tissue around the tendon was bothering him.
“The doctors and the training staff are comfortable enough for me to go there and introduce myself,” he said. “It’s something that will continue to improve, doing constant treatment throughout the day, during the night, and using things on my shoes to help ease the level of pain and use tape and all those things to make you feel better throughout of the course of time, and basically I’m a lot – I’m able to go out and play and not worry about it. “
Davis scored 15 points in 14 minutes with four rebounds and an assist before leaving Sunday’s game.
Kyle Kuzma started the second half in Davis’ place.