When Anthony Davis suffered a stress injury in his right foot on Dec. 16, many people feared he would be out for an extended period of time, such as a couple of months or possibly the rest of the season.
But he missed only about five and a half weeks, and he finally returned to game action on Wednesday night as the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the San Antonio Spurs.
Davis came off the bench and was under a minutes restriction, but he made the most of his 26 minutes of game time, posting 21 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots.
After the game, he said his previously injured foot felt good.
Here's the walkoff with @AntDavis23 in his first action since Dec. 16: https://t.co/D76aeHmibx
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) January 26, 2023
Davis said that when he initially checked into the game, he was a bit tentative just trying to make sure he didn’t feel any pain, but once he didn’t, he started to get back into his normal rhythm.
However, there was a scare at the end of the third quarter when he heaved the ball from mid-court to beat the horn. He landed awkwardly on the Spurs’ Zach Collins and twisted his right ankle, and for a moment, he sat on the ground holding his ankle while the Crypto.com Crowd groaned as if to say, “Here we go again.”
But Davis was fine. In fact, Collins was called for a flagrant 1 foul for invading Davis’ landing space, and the Lakers’ big man made the ensuing three free throws.
Anthony Davis stayed down on the floor for a few seconds holding his right foot after this play. It was ruled a flagrant foul on Zach Collins, AD hit all 3 FTs.pic.twitter.com/l5LWbtuswG
— Michael Corvo (@michaelcorvoNBA) January 26, 2023
Overall, he looked very much like the dominant Davis the world saw for about a month prior to his injury when he was tearing up the NBA, and it led to a 113-104 win for L.A.
