Anthony Davis brushed off an injury to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a massive 123-111 road victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night at the Target Center. AD, who rolled his ankle early in the third quarter, posted 38 points (15-of-26 shooting) and 17 rebounds against the Wolves frontcourt of Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Anthony Davis appeared to injure his ankle on this play, but stayed in the game after a timeout pic.twitter.com/fvr6keKtVw
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) April 1, 2023
Davis hobbled for much of the second half, yet he and the Lakers only picked up their game. Los Angeles embarked on a 24-2 third-quarter run directly following AD’s ankle scare (he stayed in the game). They had fallen behind by as many as 13 points early in the third.
“He’s good, he powered through,” said Darvin Ham. “I think it’s just a twisted ankle.”
Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch on Anthony Davis: “He kicked our ass in every way possible.”
Lakers head coach Darvin Ham: “It all starts with AD … You’ve got to have that one pivotal force that can lead the charge.”
— Michael Corvo (@michaelcorvoNBA) April 1, 2023
During a game-icing sequence in the fourth quarter, a limping Davis scored three consecutive times on Towns in the post, while KAT settled for an ill-advised jumper and air-balled a 3 in the intervening possessions. AD’s final bucket of the sequence put the Lakers up 14 with about three minutes remaining. He was subbed out early to hit the locker room for treatment.
The win propelled the Lakers (38-37) into the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference and over .500 for the first time in 2022-23. The Lakers are 4-0 when Davis, LeBron James, and D’Angelo Russell are active.
Afterward, Davis was adamant that his ankle was all good.
“I knew I was going to play regardless. Just that initial tweak kinda had a little bit of pain and throbbing and stuff … tied the shoes up tighter and just tried to play off adrenaline. … But I’ll be fine.”
“I knew I was going to play regardless. Just that initial tweak — a little bit of pain.” Anthony Davis on his ankle roll and his 38-point performance against the #Twolves. pic.twitter.com/hCM7mRsIdI
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) April 1, 2023
As for whether he’ll play against the Houston Rockets on Sunday?
“Hell yeah. Yeah.”
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