LOS ANGELES — Just a few hours after LeBron James was ruled out due to flu-like symptoms, the Los Angeles Lakers lost Anthony Davis to an eye injury during Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Davis went to the Lakers’ locker room between the first and second quarters after being struck in his left eye by Kyle Anderson on a put-back dunk with 26 seconds left in the first quarter. Davis suffered a corneal abrasion in his left eye against the Golden State Warriors on March 16. He exited between the first and second quarters and didn’t return to that game as well.
James arrived at Crypto.com Arena a few hours before tip-off with the intention of playing Sunday, but quickly realized he was too sick with a stomach virus and went home immediately, according to Lakers coach Darvin Ham. Ham clarified that James’ absence wasn’t related to the Lakers being on the second night of a back-to-back.
“Just a next-man-up mentality,” Ham said pregame about the team’s mentality without James. “Obviously that’s a lot of work that’s left out of the lineup, but at the end of the day, we just got to be ready to manage it and different guys have to be ready to step up.”
The Lakers are 6-4 without James this season. They are 2-3 without Davis.
Both James and Davis’ statuses for Tuesday’s matchup with the No. 10 Golden State Warriors — a game that’ll have significant seeding implications — are unclear.
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(Photo: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)
