LOS ANGELES — Anthony Davis, who has missed the past game and a half of the Los Angeles Lakers‘ first-round series against the Phoenix Suns because of a strained groin, will be a gametime decision in Thursday’s Game 6. And that decision will be made not by him but by the Lakers’ medical staff, Davis said Wednesday.
“Hopefully all the rehab and treatment that I’m doing pays off and the doctors clear me to go,” Davis said. “That’s what we want. So, getting more treatment tonight, tomorrow and kind of talk to the doctors before the game — before and after I shoot — and hopefully everything comes back good where they clear me.
“That’s what we’re hoping for.”
L.A. is hoping to avoid becoming the sixth defending champion in league history to be bounced out of the playoffs in the first round.
Down 3-2 and coming off a demoralizing 115-85 loss in Game 5, Davis said it has pained him to be sidelined since halftime of Game 4 because of the groin injury.
“It’s tough,” he said. “Especially [Tuesday] night, watching the game and not being able to help the team on the floor. It’s the toughest part, knowing that I couldn’t contribute. My body just wouldn’t allow me to.”
Davis suffered a hyperextended left knee in Game 3 against the Suns, landing awkwardly after blocking a Devin Booker shot from behind. Davis said playing on the still tender knee in Game 4 led to him hurting his groin.
“The groin happened because of the tightness in the knee from the hyperextension,” he said. “I was feeling the knee kind of the whole game. Even the first couple plays, was feeling it. And just went up to try to lay the ball up, and as soon as I went up, I just felt it from my knee just shoot up into my groin. That was kind of the end of it.”
Davis tested things out on the court in Phoenix on Tuesday about two hours before tipoff, but the injury was still too pervasive to play through.
“I just wasn’t able to really move,” Davis said. “And every move that we make, it starts with the groin. Any other injury, the knee and all that, you can kind of finagle a way to move, but the groin is a tough place. So I just wasn’t able to do it last night.”
Davis, who averaged 34 points and 10.5 rebounds in L.A.’s two wins in the series, said he is “getting better each day.” He explained why he flashed six fingers while sitting on the bench in Game 5.
“There’s still a Game 6,” he said. “You don’t win with three wins. We’ve still got a game tomorrow, which is Game 6. Whether we win by 30 or lose by 30, there’s still another game.
“And same way for tomorrow — you get tomorrow and there’s a Game 7. You don’t win three games in a playoff series and win a series.”
Lakers coach Frank Vogel said he brought the team together Wednesday for a “constructive film session” and remained optimistic the seventh-seeded Lakers could extend the series to a Game 7 against the second-seeded Suns.
“Everybody knows that the way we played is unacceptable. But, you know, from time to time it happens. You have to put it behind us,” Vogel said. “We lose by one, we lose by 50, it doesn’t matter. You lost a playoff game. And it’s our job now to protect our home court, take care of Game 6 and give ourselves a chance to win the series. So, that’s where everybody’s head is at.”