Lakers’ Anthony Davis to miss Sunday’s game against Timberwolves

After all the preseason buzz about injury concerns, it was striking that the Lakers’ first injury report of the year was completely blank.

It was too good to last.

Anthony Davis will be held out of Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the first game of the Lakers’ first back-to-back of the season. The 27-year-old is dealing with a bruise in his right calf that he first suffered against the Clippers then re-aggravated on Christmas Day against the Mavericks in the third quarter.

Davis is averaging 23 points and 7.5 rebounds through the first two games of the season.

“Well, we just want to be responsible with it,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “We want to keep an eye on it.”

Caution has been the Lakers’ ethos since training camp started earlier this month. Neither Davis nor LeBron James played in the first two preseason games as the organization tried to bring their stars along slowly after a shortened offseason that left both admitting they were not up to their usual basketball shape. It’s been a league-wide concern, and some teams have been more conservative with their stars, openly resting them for back-to-backs after the NBA eased restrictions on the practice known as load management.

But even though an injury like Davis’ is treated with more caution this year than in a normal season, Vogel said the Lakers aren’t planning to rest James for either game of the upcoming back-to-back, with the Portland Trail Blazers coming to Staples Center on Monday.

“We’re going to approach each one throughout the whole year on a case-by-case basis,” he said, “and with the expectation that our guys will play both games, unless there is a reason otherwise.”

The Lakers have already eased the minutes load on both Davis and James, and no one on the team has averaged more than 31 minutes so far this season. But James pointed out after his 22-point, 10-assist effort against the Mavericks that observers have been calling for coaches to limit his minutes for years because of his age. So far, he’s held up well.

“If coach wants to limit my minutes early on in the season, they can do that,” he said. “If he wants to play me some games where it’s a high minutes to try to win the ballgame, they can do that too. I train my body for whatever. I’m not your typical guy that’s in his 18th season. I try to show it to you guys over and over and over.”

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