The USA men’s Olympic basketball team narrowly avoided a major hit to their depth ahead of their final pool play game Saturday morning in Paris, against Team Puerto Rico.
Los Angeles Lakers All-NBA center Anthony Davis suggested that his ankle was “100 percent” healthy following an inadvertent on-court fracas between himself and his former L.A. backup, power forward/center Wenyen Gabriel, according to Ben Golliver of The Washington Post.
“Wenyen being Wenyen. He’s my guy. I was falling and he came down too and just kind of stepped on my foot,” Davis said of the interaction.
It behooves Team USA to retain Davis, who’s been such a critical defender for the club that he was elevated to the team’s starting center role over 2023 MVP big man Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers, whose slow-footed approach hasn’t exactly endeared him to Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, currently the head coach for Team USA. Thus, naturally, it’s helpful that Davis is okay ahead of the Puerto Rico game. Miami Heat All-Defensive Team center Bam Adebayo, whom Davis defeated in the 2020 NBA Finals en route to his lone Lakers championship, would be pressed into more minutes in the event Davis had to miss extended time.
“Our identity is defense and it starts with on-ball pressure,” Kerr said of his squad’s ethos, per NBA.com’s Shaun Powell. “You can see the impact Derrick White and Jrue Holiday are making… They are accustomed to being complimentary players to stars. It doesn’t make sense for us to put our five leading scorers from an NBA season on the floor because those guys don’t complement each other well.”
According to Tony Mejia of The Sporting News, Team USA is seen as a 33.5-point favorite to take down Team Puerto Rico and keep its record unblemished heading into the quarterfinals. Team USA has already qualified for that round, but it must complete pool play before advancing to the Olympics’ Elite Eight.
Davis will be a critical component of that attack now that he is expected to be healthy and able to play without issue. The 6-foot-10 Kentucky product is riding high after his healthiest regular season ever, in which he played 76 games for Los Angeles.
