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At one point in time Anthony Davis was looked at as a Top 10 or in some people’s eyes a Top 5 player in the National Basketball Association. Unfortunately, injuries have been a huge part of Davis’s career as he’s never played more than 75 games in a season. After this past weekend he’s going to have to make sure he’s healthy because if the Los Angeles Lakers are going to get into the playoffs this season it looks like he’ll have to carry the team on his back.

The Lakers are currently 29-33 after last night’s 121-109 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. After the loss the Lakers find themselves just one game out of the 10th and final playoff spot in the Western conference. The Lakers have 20 games left in the regular season to make up that game and get into the playoffs, but it’s possible that they may have to do it without Lebron James.

On Saturday the Lakers wiped out a 27-point deficit and beat the Dallas Mavericks 111-108. The win was important to the Lakers, but it may have come at a high price.

During the game James injured his foot. There really hasn’t been a lot of clarifications on James’s injury. The only thing that the Lakers have said is that he’ll be reevaluated in two weeks. With that type of a timetable James will miss at least nine games and possibly more if he’s not ready to return after that two-week time period.

Now a lot of people have written off the Lakers now that James is out injured, but don’t be too certain of that. In those final 20 games the Lakers statistically have the easiest schedule out of any team in the NBA. That means that if Davis steps up and plays like the player that used to be considered one of the best in the NBA the Lakers could find their way into the Play-in part of the playoffs.

Davis has actually had a good season so far, but that was as the Lakers second option behind James. Davis is averaging 25.8 points per game while averaging 12.6 rebounds per game and 2.1 blocks per game. Those are good numbers, but he did that as the Lakers #2 option behind James. Will Davis be able to continue to put up numbers as the Lakers main scoring option?

Of course, the big issue with Davis is will he be able to stay healthy through these last games. This season Davis has appeared in just games 38 of the Lakers 62 games this season. He’ll need to find a way to be ready to go for these final 20 games if the lakers have any chance of finding their way into that play-in portion of the playoffs.

The Lakers are on the road tonight against the Oklahoma City Thunder. This is a big game for Oklahoma City as they are 28-33 heading into tonight’s game and a win would draw them even in the standings with the Lakers. After the game in Oklahoma City the Lakers return to Los Angeles for a five game homestand.

The gap from 4th place to 13th place isn’t that big of a difference in the Western conference. The Phoenix Suns currently sit in 4th place with a record of 33-29 while Oklahoma City is the team in 13th right now, but they’re just 4 1/2 games behind Phoenix. With the standings the way they are in the Western conference right now every game is important for not only the Lakers, but for every team from 4th place down.

Chime in here. Do you see the Lakers getting into the playoffs? If you do think they get into the playoffs, do you think they could actually win a playoff series?

The Suns also play tonight. It’s the second of s four game road trip for them as they’ll face the Charlotte Hornets. What everybody will be looking at in this game is that Kevin Durant is scheduled to make his debut for the Suns tonight.

On February 9th Durant was traded to the Suns with T.J. Warren in exchange for Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and Jae Crowder as well as four unprotected 1st round draft picks and a 2028 1st round pick swap.

Durant has yet to play for Phoenix as he’s been listed as out with a right knee injury. Durant’s last game was on January 8th when he was still a member of the Brooklyn Nets.

It’s your turn to let me know what you think again. Does Durant make the Suns a title contender?

As always don’t forget to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.