Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis left the Christmas game against the Golden State Warriors midway through the first quarter after suffering a sprained left ankle and was ultimately sidelined for the remainder of the game. The Lakers initially said he was questionable at halftime, but he did not come out with his team in the third quarter and was later deemed unable to return.

Davis finished the game with 0 points on 0-for-3 shooting, two rebounds and one steal in seven minutes.

It’s an unfortunate loss for the Lakers, who are already thin on the field with Jaxson Hayes, Christian Wood and Jarred Vanderbilt out due to their own injuries.

In Davis’ absence, the Lakers will rely on Christian Koloko at center, while LeBron James and Rui Hachimura will also see time there, considering the team has no other healthy big men.

Given the Warriors’ lack of size, not having Davis for the rest of the game isn’t ideal. He has typically dominated against Golden State in recent years.

It remains to be seen how serious the injury is for Davis and whether he will ever be sidelined, but it will be worth monitoring in the future. Davis has struggled with minor ailments in the past and will certainly do everything he can to get back on the floor as quickly as possible.

Anthony Davis: Teams will take advantage of the Lakers’ lack of physicality

During a recent loss in which the Lakers were bullied by the Detroit Pistons, Anthony Davis spoke about the need to be more physical and improve their turnovers as teams will look to exploit this in the future.

“Be strong with the ball. Teams will watch film and watch this game. The game plan for the game is to be physical and we’re not going to turn the ball over, so we’re just going to have to be physical with the basketball. We have to line up the guys and not play so loosely, and we can counteract that by fighting back physically.”

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