Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis. Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

Anthony Davis changing the narrative regarding his durability

By Sai Mohan | Last updated 3/27/24

Not too long ago, there were serious question marks about Anthony Davis' durability, and justifiably so. The Lakers star missed a whopping 114 out of 246 games between the 2020-21 and 2022-23 seasons, sitting out nearly half of his team's regular season games over three years.

To Davis' credit, he has flipped the narrative about him this season.

On Tuesday night, Davis logged 52 minutes in a 2OT thriller against the Bucks, becoming the first Laker since Kobe Bryant in 2012 to play as many minutes in a regular season game. Davis even required treatment midway through the game for his nagging knee injury. But "The Brow" played through the pain, as he has through other nagging injuries for most of the season.

After Tuesday's game, Davis explained why he refused to come out of the game despite dealing with a knee issue.

"I was just keeping my knee warm," Davis explained. "My trainer was [using] a heat pad to do some release work. I don't think I got knee-to-knee [contact]. I'm not sure what happened. It is what it is."

Anthony Davis (34 pts, 23 reb) discusses the challenges of playing double overtime and achieving a milestone of playing 52 minutes, becoming the first Lakers player to do so since Kobe Bryant in 2012. pic.twitter.com/aUqJd14uql
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) March 27, 2024

In previous years, Davis would have likely headed back to the locker room with a hurt knee. But the 2023-24 version of Davis is a different animal.

The Kentucky product has appeared in 68 of the Lakers' 72 games this season after playing the final 28 games last season. All in all, he's played 96 of the last 100. That's quite a turnaround for a player once deemed un-durable.

While Davis' durability was a question mark for the rest of the world, the man himself was always determined to change the narrative about him. Before the start of the season, Davis declared his intention to play all 82 games. He was laughed at.

Anthony Davis was laughed by everyone when he said his goal was to play 82 games this season.

He has played 96 of his last 100 games and just came off 52 minutes, the most by a Laker since Kobe in 2012.

Let the praise be as loud as the doubt pic.twitter.com/l0u5D3SpUB
— Lakers Lead (@LakersLead) March 27, 2024

If Davis sustains his current level of play, he and the Lakers could have the last laugh. Riding a four-game winning streak, the ninth-seeded Lakers are just two games shy of the Kings for the seventh seed.

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