Anthony Davis will miss fourth straight game when Lakers play Magic tonight
Anthony Davis is out for tonight’s game against the Orlando Magic, Lakers coach Frank Vogel said, making it the fourth consecutive game he’s missed since sustaining a bruised gluteus maximus on Jan. 7 against the New York Knicks.
Davis has not participated in a live practice, though Vogel is hoping he’ll be able to when the team reconvenes on Friday.
“He moved a lot more,” Vogel said when asked what Davis did during Wednesday’s shoot-around. “It wasn’t live action. The coaches bumped him around a little bit trying to test it. He’s still not ready. We’ll have an off day tomorrow and practice again on Friday. Hopefully we’ll be able to get him into some more activity and potentially even some live practice on Friday.”
The Lakers have won all three games they played without Davis during this stretch, with Kyle Kuzma starting in Davis’s place, beating the Mavericks, Thunder and Cavaliers. Davis joked on Tuesday that it didn’t look like the Lakers needed him back soon.
Dwight Howard’s 2013 split from the Lakers was acrimonious. The second time around has been surprisingly successful and refreshingly free of drama.
“We obviously change very much” without Davis, Vogel said. “Dramatically. And it’s really been a great time for Kuz to climb the rope. He struggled to catch a rhythm in this system early in the year battling the injuries and having a new role than he had last year. But just to get the minutes that he’s getting right now and to find an offensive rhythm and tighten up the defensive coverages, I think it’s an invaluable time for him, in particular.”
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