It was on Sunday, May 30th where we saw the defending champs, Los Angeles Lakers take on the Pheonix Suns in Game 4 of their 1st round Western conference matchup. It was a back and forth matchup in the first two quarters up until we saw Lakers star Forward/Center go down with a groin injury at the end of the 2nd quarter.
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Davis got up and tried to shake it off before the quarter ended but looked very sluggish and had trouble walking or running properly. When he walked to the back to the locker room with the rest of the team for halftime he did not come back out with them for the second half and was ultimately ruled out for the remainder of the game.
It was at that moment going forward that it seemed like the Lakers went down right with Davis.
Coming out in the second half the Lakers were held to just 15 points in the third quarter where the Suns scored 27. The fourth quarter was much better where they started to come back and hit shots and outscored the Suns 27 to 19. Although it was not enough to complete the comeback and they fell short at home losing to the Suns 100-92. Even though they lost, the end of the game showed what the Lakers are capable of without Davis on the floor. That is as long as they hit their shots.
Enter Game 5
Last night was Tuesday, June 1st. The game 5 matchup between the two took place and the Lakers came into the game without Anthony Davis. Before the game started we saw Davis try to warm up on the sidelines and was even labeled questionable leading up to the game but was eventually ruled out.
In the first quarter, the Lakers kept it close up until the middle of the quarter where the Suns started hitting multiple three-point shots *majority from Cameron Payne* and ran away with the quarter scoring 34 to 26.
The Second Quarter
Now entering the second quarter is where everything fell apart for the Lakers and catastrophically. They ended that second quarter only scoring 10 points! The team as a whole scored just 2 points in the first 7 minutes of the quarter which came at the free-throw line where both Kyle Kuzma and Markieff Morris went 2 of 4.
Anthony Davis in the game or not, there is no excuse for a team like the Lakers to score only 10 points in any quarter.
The Lakers kept it just about even in the second half of the game but that second-quarter performance made it too little too late and impossible for them to come back and lost the game by a big 30 points with the score being 85 - 115 which is now the biggest loss Lebron has taken in his illustrious playoff run.
Game 6 will take place on Thursday, June 3rd. At this moment it is not clear if Anthony Davis will or will not play but you can bet he is getting round-the-clock treatment leading up to the game.
Lebron is averaging just about 24 points in this series but the man is 36 and in his 18th season and isn't the 45 point scorer he used to be in the playoffs so he will need Davis out there. But even if he can play the question will go from "will he play" to "how hard can he play" if given the green light.
All that will remain to be seen tomorrow.
Hope you guys enjoyed the read and hope you all enjoy the games
-Sani