The Lakers are hoping star forward/center Anthony Davis will be able to return from his foot injury ahead of the NBA All-Star break on Feb. 18, per Shams Charania of The Athletic, via FanDuel TV.
Davis will miss his 16th straight game when the Lakers face the Rockets on Monday. He said last month that the pain in his foot is subsiding.
“Feeling a lot better, pain has subsided tremendously,” Davis said, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “I think the next step is (the foot) healing right now. I don’t want to use timetables because that’s a whole different thing, but it’s healing pretty quickly. So when we get back to LA, we’ll do another image of the foot, and see how far it’s healed.”
Upon suffering the injury, Davis said, the pain seemed like about a nine on a scale of 10. By the end of December it was down to about a one or two, he added.
But the Lakers will stay cautious with the oft-injured big man.
“The stress reaction (can lead to) a stress fracture, and that’s a whole different ballgame,” Davis said.
Davis suffered the injury in a Dec. 16 win over the Nuggets and was forced to exit the game. He made just 40 appearances last season and just 36 the season before that.
Initial reports suggested he would miss at least a month this time, and while he said he’s feeling better, that timeline seems to be fairly accurate. But for the struggling Lakers, the sooner Davis gets back the better, as their playoff hopes haven’t looked all that realistic with him.
He is averaging 27.4 points and 12.1 rebounds in 25 appearances, shooting 59 percent from the field.
“I’m just really excited to get back on the floor,” Davis said. “(It) hasn’t been a ‘Man, it’s going to take me X amount of games to get back in rhythm,’ or, ‘Might not be the same.’ That’s not even been a thought in my mind. My thought has been, ‘Whenever that day is, it’s go time.’”
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