A left heel contusion kept Los Angeles star big man Anthony Davis from playing Wednesday night against the host Memphis Grizzlies.
Davis, who entered the day leading the league in scoring at 32.6 points per game, aggravated the injury in a road loss to the Detroit Pistons on Monday. He determined during a pregame workout Wednesday that he could not play.
Los Angeles coach JJ Redick said Davis, 31, has not had any imaging on the foot since Monday’s game.
“From my understanding, it is something that off and on has bothered him a little bit throughout the summer and so far this season,” Redick said, according to ESPN. “We’ll obviously miss him a lot.”
The Lakers also were missing forward Rui Hachimura because of an illness.
“I think for all of us, we want to take a long-term view on all of our players’ health for an 82-game season,” Redick said. “I just spoke with (Davis) before coming and talking to you guys. He was very positive about how it felt, but we recognize we got a long flight back to L.A., we got to turn around and do it again on Friday. So, hopefully, the extra 48 hours of rest will be good.”
Redick said Davis could be available for Friday’s home game against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Davis is averaging a career-best 32.6 points per game along with 11.6 rebounds, three assists, 1.6 steals and 1.7 blocks in 36.3 minutes in starting all seven previous games this season.
The nine-time All-Star has career averages of 24.2 points, 10.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.3 steals and 2.3 blocks (best among active players) in 743 games (736 starts) for New Orleans (2012-19) and Los Angeles (2019-present). New Orleans selected him No. 1 overall in the 2012 NBA Draft.
Hachimura, 26, started the first seven games and is averaging 13.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 34.1 minutes. His career averages are 12.8 points and 4.9 rebounds in 285 games (173 starts) for the Washington Wizards (2019-23) and Lakers (2023-present). In the 2019 draft, he was the No. 9 overall pick by the Wizards.