Lakers' Anthony Davis Reveals Wrist Injury Affected His Shooting Last Season

Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis didn't have a great shooting year in 2021-22, and now we may know one of the reasons.

"A lot of people don’t know this but since January I was battling a wrist injury," he told reporters Wednesday. "... It was tough for me to shoot how I wanted to shoot."

Davis was limited to 40 games last year, first suffering an MCL sprain in December and then experiencing a foot sprain in February.

He also injured his wrist in a 105-87 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Jan. 27, but it didn't appear to be serious. X-rays on the wrist came back negative, and the 6'10" forward was only out for one game.

In light of Davis' recent comments, it was obviously a bigger issue than people were aware at the time.

Along with him missing half of the season, Davis' performance on the court left many underwhelmed. He averaged 23.2 points on 53.2 percent shooting — his third-best clip ever — yet his inconsistency from the perimeter was impossible to ignore. He hit just 18.6 percent of his three-point attempts. His free-throw percentage (71.3) was a career low for good measure.

It would be easy to blame the wrist injury alone, yet the numbers don't back up that argument. In 29 appearances through Jan. 27, he was a 52.4/17.2/73.5 percent shooter. He shot 55.4/25.0/.66.7 percent for the rest of the year, which isn't a great sample because it equated to 11 games.

Davis said Wednesday his wrist is feeling "great," so it shouldn't continue to linger once the season begins. Although that won't be a panacea for his shooting, broadly staying healthy may go a long way toward him getting back to his best as a stretch big.