LOS ANGELES – For one young New Orleans fan with a second-row seat at last Friday’s home game vs. Indiana, a late arrival to the Smoothie King Center meant missing the chance for an up-close-and-personal meeting with two-time All-Star power forward Anthony Davis. Under the circumstances, however, that was probably for the best.
Davis, who pursued a loose ball against the Pacers by diving over the first row and crashing into the second, sustained a painful back contusion on the play when he landed on unoccupied chairs. After sitting out Sunday’s game against the Clippers, his status is listed as questionable for Tuesday’s matchup vs. the Lakers. The 22-year-old explained after Monday’s morning practice at USC that the incident causing his injury actually could’ve been worse.
“The person who was sitting there (who arrived after Davis’ tumble) was a little boy with two broken arms or something,” Davis said. “That would’ve been bad. I was just trying to dodge the front (row) two people who I saw. I landed on the chairs.”
Davis said his back contacted the piece of a chair that holds the seat down. The second row is also elevated slightly by a small metal riser. Three days after the collision, Davis said his condition has improved, but it did not progress enough for the Pelicans to risk playing him in Sunday’s 114-111 overtime defeat.
“I feel better,” he said. “I’m not 100 percent sure yet (about playing Tuesday), but I feel better than what I did the past couple days.
“It’s a little soreness, a little pain. But I’ll be fine. I’m trying to take it one day at a time and get back. I don’t want to do anything stupid or jeopardize anything. We’re going to keep treating it and see how it feels tomorrow.”
With help from a five-minute overtime period, the Pelicans (11-25) scored their ninth-most points in a game this season, despite the absence of the NBA’s 11th-leading scorer. Davis called his teammates’ effort “amazing,” even if it didn’t result in a win.
“We had a lot of open looks (with a chance to win or take a late lead),” Davis said. “I think (Dante Cunningham) had three looks, Ryan (Anderson) had a wide-open three, and at the end he had a layup that just didn’t go in for us. I thought the effort and energy was there. We battled back, kept fighting, especially on the road for a noon game, we came ready to play. We have to bring that type of effort throughout the whole game. Shots didn’t fall at the end for us. If we play like that, we’re going to be on the other side (of the win-loss column) next time.”