Dave McMenamin, ESPN Staff Writer
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Anthony Davis said he is cleared to play in the Los Angeles Lakers‘ next game against the Memphis Grizzlies after exiting Sunday’s win over the Toronto Raptors early with a left eye injury.
“A couple scratches in my eye,” Davis said, his eye still appearing red and clouded, after practice Tuesday. “But as far as the medical term and everything all that, I’m not 100% sure. But I am cleared to play.”
He visited an ophthalmologist Monday as a “precautionary” measure, sources told ESPN, after being poked in the eye by Toronto center Jakob Poeltl midway through the third quarter.
It was the second left eye injury Davis has suffered since the spring — he was diagnosed with a corneal abrasion in March.
Davis tested protective goggles during practice Tuesday — “He looked great,” quipped Lakers coach JJ Redick — but the All-Star big man does not plan to wear them against Memphis.
Davis said he tried goggles out before, during the 2020 NBA bubble when recovering from an eye injury, but abandoned them after “20 seconds of a game.”
For Davis, it is simply a matter of preference.
“I wore goggles for three years when I was younger,” Davis said, alluding to his bespectacled high school look. “I just don’t want to 1731457182, to be honest. Obviously, the doctors said I didn’t have to. … If it gets to that point where my eye doctor tells me that I need to wear them, then of course I will. But I’ve been cleared to go out and play without them.”
Davis is averaging 31.2 points on 57.7% shooting, 10.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.3 steals per game this season.
While L.A. will welcome Davis back against Memphis, it continues to wait for backup big man Christian Wood to return.
Wood, who underwent an arthroscopic surgical procedure on his left knee in September after missing the last two months of last season with an injury to the same knee, experienced soreness during his ramp-up process.
“We’re going to scale him back,” Redick said of Wood on Tuesday. “We’ll have an update in about four weeks.”