Will this impact his availability in Paris?
Playing in his second Olympics this summer, 31-year-old Los Angeles Lakers center Anthony Davis has emerged as one of head coach Steve Kerr's most trusted veterans. Team USA has won all five of its exhibition games and its opening contest of pool play in large part thanks to his work while manning the middle.
It turns out that the 6-foot-10 Kentucky product has been doing all this while apparently under the weather., Davis has sat out for multiple team practices due to an illness. That doesn't seem to have prevented him from submitting some terrific two-way post play in Paris thus far. Davis has roundly outperformed the player he's backing up, Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, who seems lost without the ball in his hands, while also being out-of-shape and a defensive sieve. Davis and Miami Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo have emerged as the club's top two frontcourt defenders, perhaps unsurprisingly.
In 19 minutes off the bench, the nine-time All-Star scored seven points on 3-of-6 shooting from the floor and 1-of-1 shooting from the charity stripe, while grabbing eight rebounds, passing for one assist, and swiping a steal. In fact, Davis and Adebayo each played significantly more than Embiid, who logged just 11 minutes, the fewest of any rotation player.
Pina notes that Davis and/or Adebayo have clearly carved out a deserved closing role for the club, even if 2023 league MVP Embiid continues to draw that start. Pina adds that Embiid, too, is sick, and it's possible that Kerr may sit him for Team USA's next game, against South Sudan on Wednesday.
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