The LA Lakers had suffered a huge blow when they lost the services of Anthony Davis, who was ruled out due to calf injury in February. The defending champions suffered another big as their talisman LeBron James was ruled out due to an ankle sprain which he suffered while playing against Atlanta Hawks in March.
As a result, the Lakers have slipped to the fifth position in the Western Conference standings as they were without their two best players. However, the Lakers had something to cheer about as Davis returned back to action against the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday.
But the team’s head coach Frank Vogel had already revealed that Davis will play with a time restriction as he will take some time to hit the ground running. Davis looked rusty in his comeback match as he could only add four points in the 17 minutes he played on the court. Subsequently, Davis played for 28 minutes in the next match against Dallas Mavericks and added 17 points for the team.
Davis looked more comfortable and he is expected to soon find his A-game. The team’s coach revealed that minute-restrictions will ease off slowly.
“It’s going to be a working progress. He’s playing with a new teammate and trying to get his legs under him. It’s going to be a little disjointed at times.”
“We’ll see how he responds overnight and the medical team gives me the recommendation. They’re counting not just total minutes, but how many stoppages there are while he’s in there, so there is some flexibility there. Hopefully, that continues to go up,” Vogel explained.
Meanwhile, Lakers have lost four out of their last five matches and they will aim to get back to winning ways against Orlando Magic on Monday night. It is also reported that LeBron James will return back to action next week.
