Lakers’ Anthony Davis, Gabe Vincent sit out against Blazers
LOS ANGELES — All-Star big man Anthony Davis and backup guard Gabe Vincent weren’t available for the Lakers’ home game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday night.
Davis missed the game because of a sprained left ankle, which he originally suffered in the first quarter of the Lakers’ victory over the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day in San Francisco.
He only played the first seven minutes of the win over the Warriors before sitting out the remainder of the game.
“The ankle sprain from Golden State and just a ton of games, just want to be smart about it with some soreness,” Coach JJ Redick said pregame. “Some lingering soreness.”
Davis played in Saturday’s home win against the Sacramento Kings and Tuesday’s loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, matchups he entered as questionable because of the ankle.
He had 36 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists in 39 minutes against the Kings and recorded 28 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, three steals and a pair of blocked shots in 37 minutes against the Cavaliers.
Jaxson Hayes, who was available but didn’t play against the Cavaliers after missing 20 of the previous 21 games because of right ankle ailments, started in place of Davis against the Blazers alongside Austin Reaves, Max Christie, Rui Hachimura and LeBron James.
Two-way contract center Christian Koloko was also available and expected to be in the rotation.
Thursday was the first night of a back-to-back for the Lakers, who host the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Vincent missed his second consecutive game because of a strained left oblique, which he suffered early in the win against the Kings.
“Gabe, I would say, continues to be day to day,” Redick said, “but still dealing with some pain from that oblique injury.”
PATIENT GAME
Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton, both acquired by the Lakers in a trade with the Brooklyn Nets for D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round draft picks, made their Laker debuts in the loss to the Cavaliers.
Milton scored six points in 10 minutes and Finney-Smith had two points in 20 minutes, with Finney-Smith acknowledging postgame that his minutes were limited in light of Tuesday being his first game with his new team.
Redick, who was traded multiple times during his 15-year playing career, said it will likely take about a month for the newcomers to get up to speed.
“That’s probably fair to them,” the coach added. “To think about the time that we spent in August and September with a number of our guys – October for three weeks with our full team before we played an actual game – takes a little bit of time.
“[Finney-Smith] was funny. He’s like, ‘everybody runs the same thing.’ And like, you’re right. But not everybody uses the same language. There’s language stuff. There’s audibles, there’s things that Austin and LeBron and A.D., just from playing together now for a few years, they just can do. And so there’s the familiarity aspect to it. But for me, it’s just creating simplicity for them early on, getting them on the court and just playing. And both those guys are pros and have just a great mentality around team sport and I’m very confident that they’ll integrate very quickly.”