Lakers center Anthony Davis rolled his right ankle late in the second quarter Wednesday night against the Utah Jazz and had to be helped off the Crypto.com Arena court by teammates.
The Lakers said Davis had a sprained right ankle, and that X-rays were negative for a fracture.
The Lakers said Davis will get treatment on the ankle over the All-Star break that starts Thursday for the team and that he’ll be reevaluated when the team returns. The Lakers’ first game after this weekend’s All-Star break is on Feb. 25, a home game against the Clippers. On Wednesday, the Lakers regrouped to rally for a 106-101 victory. They used a 24-9 run to end the game to win it.
On the play he was injured, Davis went up to catch a lob from Malik Monk. Davis caught the ball and came down on the heel of Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert.
Davis immediately collapsed in pain as his teammates stood over him with three minutes left in the second quarter. LeBron James stood nearby, a look of disbelief on his face.
As Davis rocked back and forth while sitting on the court writhing in agony, the cameras could hear him scream as he clutched the ankle.
A few minutes later, Davis wrapped his arms around the shoulders of teammates DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard, both of whom carried their fallen teammate to the locker room.
Davis left with 17 points on seven-for-nine shooting, two rebounds and two blocked shots.
The Lakers trailed 46-41 when Davis was injured.
By halftime, the Lakers were down 53-46 to the Jazz, but they were more worried about Davis.
He has already sat out 19 games this season because of a left knee sprain and one game because of right wrist soreness.
Now Davis and the Lakers must deal with this ankle injury that appeared serious from the way Davis reacted and having to leave the court with the help of others.
It means that the Lakers’ hard truth on what has been a disappointing season so far has become even more difficult.
They have a lot of work ahead of them after the All-Star break and might not have Davis around again for a while to help them.
The Lakers are a floundering team that hasn’t met the lofty championship expectations put on them during their first 58 games.
They have 24 regular-season games remaining and are still without Carmelo Anthony, who sat out his fifth straight game because of a strained right hamstring, Avery Bradley, who sat out with because of right knee effusion, and guard Kendrick Nunn, who has been out all season because of a bone bruise in his right knee.
The Lakers are now 27-31 in the Western Conference standings, a position that puts them squarely in the NBA’s play-in game as the ninth seed.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel admitted before the game that he looks at the standings “after a win,” but “not after losses.”
“I tend to not look at it too much after losses, but I looked at it today to see where we’re at,” Vogel said. “We’re six games out of the top six, which is a big number. Can we make that up? I don’t know.
“But we have an opportunity to be five [games back] after tonight, so I did talk to our team about that.”
Even before Davis was injured, the Lakers were having problems that put them in the bottom part of some key league stats.
Entering the game, the Lakers were giving up 112.6 points per game, ranking them 26th in the league.
They are 29th in free-throw shooting, making just 72.2%.
They are ranked 27th in turnovers, giving the ball away 14.1 times per game.
The Lakers went down by 14 points in the second half but kept playing hard and it eventually paid off.
After James scored to pull the Lakers to within 94-91 with 3:17 left, he mean-mugged and flexed running down the court. Aaron Donald, who just won the Super Bowl with the Rams on Sunday, stood and flexed as James ran by him.
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