Los Angeles Lakers star forward Anthony Davis had his injuries reevaluated by team doctors Thursday night and will be out four weeks, head coach Frank Vogel said.
Sources had told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski earlier this week that Davis would be reevaluated in two to three weeks after suffering a calf strain and aggravating the Achilles tendinosis in his right leg Sunday and would be unlikely to return to the lineup before the NBA’s March 5-10 All-Star break.
“We want to try to put this fully behind him and be conservative with it, just to make sure that it’s fully healed before he’s back,” Vogel said.
A spokesperson for the Lakers said the new four-week time period is an estimation and includes the time it would be necessary for Davis to rehab and recover from the calf strain and tendinosis in his right Achilles, as well as ramp up in practices and workouts in order to return to game action.
“He’s doing exactly what he needs to do to get himself back into the best health that he can be in,” said LeBron James. “He has an injury that he can’t mess around with too much, and as an organization, as his teammates, as me as his brother, he has our full support. So, take his time, as much as he needs.”
Davis missed two games last week with tendinosis in his right Achilles and had to exit Sunday’s loss to the Denver Nuggets shortly before halftime after aggravating the injury.
An MRI on Monday revealed the calf strain and the tendinosis aggravation, a source told Wojnarowski, but it did not show a rupture of the right Achilles tendon.
James and Davis spent the final several minutes of the Lakers’ 109-98 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday standing together near the corner of the court, deep in conversation while the Nets put the finishing touches on the win.
“When I go to the sideline, we’re talking about the game, that possession, that half, that quarter,” James said. “What can I do better? Does he see something that I could have done better? Does he see some things that we could have done better? Because he’s still a big extension of our real team, even if he’s not in uniform. So, nothing changes though.”
The Lakers are 1-2 in their past three games, including Sunday’s loss to Denver when Davis aggravated his right leg and have seven more games in the next two weeks before the All-Star break.
When asked how L.A. will continue to try to stay atop the standings for a month without Davis, James said he is staying focused on simply what’s in front of him.
“I really haven’t even thought that far, to be honest,” he said. “I’m taking it day by day. We play every other day. I don’t have the opportunity to look four weeks ahead. … I have to stay in the moment … Stay low and keep firing. I have not even thought that far down of what it looks like four weeks from now.”
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