Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis finished the game against the Atlanta Hawks with 22 points, 15 rebounds, six assists, two steals, and one block.
Despite filling up the stat sheet, finishing the game was likely his greatest achievement.
Davis got a scratched eye after being poked in the eye by Golden State Warriors big man Trayce Jackson-Davis in the Lakers’ defeat on March 16. He left that game in the final seconds of the first quarter and didn't play the rest of the game.
His emphatic return emphasizes teammate LeBron James’ perspective on how Davis impacts their play.
Davis mentioned that his eye is still not fully recovered.
“Yes, just seeing the eye doctors, sorting things out. That’s all I can tell you right now,” Davis informed reporters from the locker room after the win over Atlanta on March 18. “I’m not declaring anything for certain. … Just need to do a couple more things. But after that, everything should be fine.”
Davis has already made his most appearances since the 2017-18 season and could be on track to set a new career-high depending on how the Lakers handle him down the stretch.
He noted that he hadn’t planned on wearing anything protective, and detailed the severity.
Anthony Davis Doesn’t Plan to Wear Protective Goggles
“No, I’ve been through that phase in high school,” Davis said about wearing goggles. “I’m out of that phase. I mean, obviously, if the doctors told me that I needed it. I asked that question, obviously, and I didn’t need it. They said if I wanted to, but I didn’t need it. So no, I wasn’t planning on wearing it.
“I just couldn’t see. The corneal abrasion was actually right in the middle of my eye. So it wasn’t like off to the side, so anytime I looked, it was just blurry. My eye was swollen. I thought my eye was open, but it wasn’t. It just kept watering, it felt like sand was in my eye.
“It was just better closed, and I couldn’t really see. So I just kept icing it, on Saturday after the first quarter, and it got better later that night.”
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Davis said he sat in the dark and the swelling went down.
He said that he went to the doctor and that he “learned some other things” and had his eyes dilated on gameday. Davis said he was seeing clearly again after the win over the Hawks.
LeBron James Talks Anthony Davis’ Impact on Lakers
They are 1-3 when he sits this season. The Lakers are also still facing challenges from the Warriors and even the Houston Rockets for ninth place in the Western Conference and a home game in the opening round of the Play-In Tournament.
“Obviously, some things that we can’t do without without AD,” James told reporters on March 16.
“That’s having another threat always on the floor, both offensively and defensively versus a team [the Warriors] that has multiple threats. So, obviously, when you lose AD it just hurts the balance of our team. We’ve been pretty good, our coaches have been pretty good at having a certain rotation, how we work in our rotation. So now that changes a lot of things.”
Davis’ availability was a game-day decision. He came out of the victory against the Hawks without any additional problems.
This should be good for the Lakers, as they have three days off before their next game.
They will come back from the short break to host the Philadelphia 76ers followed by the Indiana Pacers before going on a six-game road trip. Only two of the games during that trip are against playoff teams, including their second match against the Pacers.
