Anthony Davis left the Lakers’ locker room midway through the third quarter on Sunday night after getting hit in the face while trying to block a dunk attempt by Toronto’s Jakob Poeltl.
The nine-time All-Star was later ruled out for the rest of the game due to an eye injury. The Lakers were down by three points when Poeltl accidentally poked Davis in his left eye with his off hand, but Los Angeles rallied to a 123-103 win without him.
“I just know that he got poked in (his left eye),” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “He was having trouble seeing. Obviously, take a little trauma to the eye, and it takes a little bit of time to get your clear vision back. But other than that, no update.”
Davis got hurt while making an impressive block on Poeltl’s dunk attempt in the lane with 5:16 left in the third quarter. As the Lakers’ fans cheered, Davis dropped to the floor in obvious pain, holding his face. He stayed down for about a minute before walking to the locker room.
LeBron James stepped up in Davis’ absence, recording his 115th triple-double. Los Angeles finished the final 17 minutes of the game on a 53-30 run, with James contributing 19 points, a season-high 16 assists, and 10 rebounds.
“AD is a big-time rebounder, so I had to pick up some of the slack with the defensive rebounding,” James said. “And then with AD out, I’m taking a lot of eyes (that would be on) AD, because he’s putting so much pressure on defenses this season.
I take some of that responsibility as well. Something I’ve been able to do for quite a while, so it’s not hard for me to be able to tap into that, even though that’s not been my role this year so far.”
Davis had a corneal abrasion in the same eye last March during a game against Golden State. Despite the injury, he didn’t miss any games, returning just two days later.
Davis has had an excellent start to the season, with many mentioning him in MVP talks. Before the injury, he was leading the NBA in scoring at 32.4 points per game, along with 11.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists. He had already scored 30 or more points in six games this season.
Davis had 22 points, four rebounds, and two blocks before being injured in the game against the Raptors.
Jaxson Hayes took Davis’ spot in the Lakers’ lineup and quickly made an impact with three dunks and a layup as the Lakers pulled ahead. Hayes, who is the only other player on the Lakers taller than 6-foot-9, finished with 12 points and six rebounds.
“It requires more from everyone else,” Redick said. “Jaxson stepped up to that moment, played both ends of the court and gave us a few extra possessions. Just his energy, I thought, really uplifted the group.”
Davis had missed the previous game in Memphis on Wednesday due to a bruised left heel. Despite a history of injuries, he played a career-high 76 games last season.
The Lakers’ next game is Wednesday night at home against the Grizzlies.
