Lakers letting Anthony Davis recondition in games as he returns from injury

NEW YORK – “He’s in.”

The Lakers have been waiting to hear that for more than a month – and finally, Anthony Davis was able to rejoin their lineup on Tuesday night against Brooklyn after a 17-game absence, finishing with eight points, four blocked shots and two rebounds in just under 25 minutes.

“For the most part, I felt fine, felt great out there. The first couple minutes the adrenaline took over and after that, the wind caught up to me,” said Davis, cheerful after his return to the court. “When I caught my second wind I was fine for the rest of the game, so, see how it reacts tomorrow.”

But the Lakers don’t consider Davis, 28, to be fully reconditioned, and for the remainder of the team’s six-game road trip, they’ll try to thread the tricky needle of winning games while their All-Star big man gets his legs underneath him after returning from an MCL sprain in his left knee.

“We are still viewing these first few games as not out of the woods yet,” Coach Frank Vogel said Tuesday night before the Lakers tipped off against the Nets. “This is going to be his reconditioning phase. He’s gonna do it in games. And there might be some stretches where he’s out of sync and out of rhythm. We’re expecting that.”

The Lakers expect Davis will help them in games coming up in Philadelphia, Charlotte and Atlanta. And even though they acknowledge there surely will be rough patches, they’re hopeful that Davis, on balance, gives them a better chance to win by being on the court.

“He’s one of the best two-way players in the game,” Vogel said. “I see him impacting both sides of the ball. We’ve missed his defensive versatility, his length at the basket, ability to guard on the perimeter and obviously everything he does offensively.”

The Lakers felt fortunate, in a sense, when Davis was injured on Dec. 17 in Minnesota – initially, Davis and the Lakers feared it might be a more serious injury. The Lakers went 7-10 without him, a stretch Vogel said he wished had gone better.

Davis said early on in his recovery, he was doing single- and double-leg squats, then he was able to run lightly. After four weeks, he started weaning off of his knee brace. In the past week, Davis has worked out with coaches in Orlando, and then teammates in Miami.

“Then it was just about feel for me,” he said, “if I was comfortable enough to go out there and play.”

Before Davis got hurt, he had played just 15 games with LeBron James and Russell Westbrook also both available. Vogel said one of the keys for the rest of the season will be getting the star trio as acclimated to playing together as possible.

“I think they have to spend as much time on the floor together as they can,” Vogel said. “There’s not going to be a lot of practice time, so the communication and film sessions will be vital. And obviously, the communication within the games, talking to each other. It’s really going to come down to getting as many minutes together on the floor as possible.”

Davis said the biggest physical bother he faced against the Nets was his conditioning. He said his knee felt fine. And given that he made athletic plays on defense, such as his diving steal against DeAndre Bembry, it was easier to take him at his word.

“Until I get my legs I’ve gotta use these games to get my legs,” he said. “But I don’t think about (my knee) when I’m playing. I don’t wanna babysit it. If I feel like I’ve gotta babysit it then I shouldn’t be on the floor.”