Anthony Davis came walking through that door Thursday night. It might be a while before he recaptures the room.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel gave him 16:45 in the first half at Dallas to jab the memories of his muscles. That was enough time for Davis to hit the deck five times, and for Vogel to recover from arrhythmia whenever Davis got up.
Otherwise, it was a tepid shakedown session. Davis missed 10 of 12 shots, got to the foul line twice (in the last half-minute of the half), was noticeably careful defensively, and looked as if he hadn’t played an NBA game since Valentine’s Day. The Lakers were better without him, but they still lost, 115-110.
He did start, and Vogel left him out there for the first 7:45 of the game. In that segment, he went 1 for 6, with a nice 20-footer on a stepback, and had three rebounds. The Lakers were within 22-20 at the time he came out.
Davis was somewhat more comfortable in the second quarter, attacking Dorian Finney-Smith with a spin move and a bucket, and finding Ben McLemore on a cross-court assist. Later he reached out and blocked a shot by Kristaps Porzingis, who replied on the next possession with a dunk over Davis, who moved out of the picture frame just in time.
Davis gave the scorer’s table a faint kick at the end of the half. He took a permanent seat with 2-for-10 shooting and a minus-11, if you put any stock into that. If there was a number that screamed, it was the zero in the foul column. All that means is Davis was taking a test drive Thursday night. Relentlessness will come later. The league should keep its conclusions to a minimum.
Has it dawned on everyone that this is not Strat-O-Matic basketball, that there is nothing automatic, or immediate, about what Davis and LeBron James can bring?
The Lakers lost to Denver the night Davis went down with his calf injury, and then lost 16 of their next 30 games. They were 7-7 until James sprained his ankle, and were 7-10 thereafter, until Thursday.
Before Davis’ injury they were 1½ games behind Utah in the Western Conference standings, but it was easier to find a palming violation than to find a fan, any fan, who didn’t think the Lakers were inevitable repeaters.
Since then, the Lakers have plunged into fifth place in the West and are highly unlikely to finish above fourth. They are seven games out of second place, which is what they would need to face the survivor of the 7-through-10 play-in tournament in the first round.
Utah is still on top, still winning on long bombs and defense. Counting its eight-game win streak in last year’s bubble in Florida, Phoenix has won 50 of its last 67 games. The Nuggets have lost Jamal Murray for the season but have simply rearranged themselves around probable MVP Nikola Jokic.
The Clippers are playing their best basketball in a couple of seasons, and it doesn’t seem to matter if Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are in the Barcalounger or not.
That’s probably the best thing the Lakers have going for them, in this season of surgery. The deeper they get, the more chances remain for somebody else to get hurt.
“It’s not an ideal situation by any stretch,” Vogel said beforehand, “as far as having enough time to get conditioning, rhythm and timing. It’s an imperfect season. But it’s the hand that we’re dealt.
“With A.D., the biggest thing is that the return to play has to happen the right way. Ideally, we’d have three or four practices. We don’t have that. So we’ll be super careful.”
The Lakers will have two days off, between games, only twice between now and the regular-season finale on May 16. Between Saturday (at Dallas) and May 3 (Denver, at home), they have six games in nine days. That is everyone’s reality, of course. But they only have five games left against teams with .500-plus records. They come consecutively, beginning May 3: Denver, the Clippers, Portland, Phoenix and the New York Knicks.
The assumption is that James will return near the end of that run, which would give him one week until the playoffs. If anybody can remember the words, it’s him. He also could have the freshest legs in the postseason once he gets comfortable.
And there’s Andre Drummond, a massive X-factor. He should be the defensive border guard the Lakers haven’t had all season.
The nitty and gritty converged on Thursday, a night when Davis brought nothing familiar except his face. The Lakers will take it. Patience becomes easy when there’s no other choice.
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