Los Angeles Lakers lost a painful game against the Utah Jazz on Thursday with an impressive display from the Mitchell/Gobert duo. Lakers didn’t have injured LeBron James or Anthony Davis, which was detrimental to their hopes of getting all the way to the play-in tournament. According to Shams Charania from The Athletic, Anthony Davis is finally set to return on Friday to play against the New Orleans Pelicans at Crypto.com Arena. There hasn’t been any official confirmation on LeBron James returning on Friday but we are certain the ‘King’ will do everything in his power to make it next to Davis. But we need to focus on Anthony right now and what Lakers fans are expecting from him.
Whether it’s this season or the next one, Anthony Davis has very little room to save his career with the gold and purple squad. Although he won the championship back in 2020, the next two years have been some sort of a disaster from the player who otherwise was considered the best big man in the NBA during that year of the summer buble and the pandemic. But this season has been truly a train wreck from him specifically. Not having Anthony at his best was absolutely the main reason these Lakers weren’t able to hold themselves together amongst the top teams in the NBA with only LeBron James carrying them.
Davis’ major challenge with the Lakers.
Although it’s too short notice, Friday will begin a unique test for Anthony Davis inside the Lakers organization. He needs to prove he can perform under pressure when his team gets a visit from the New Orleans Pelicans. They still have a chance to make the play-in tournament but they also depend on the San Antonio Spurs losing their final games in order to get in there. If LeBron doesn’t make it tomorrow, Davis will be the player who needs to take a step forward or die trying. If they don’t make it, these Lakers will keep pressure on Davis to return stronger than ever next season or send him on a trade to a different team. Injuries have been an important aspect of his season. We can only hope they respect him from this moment forward.
Marca
