LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anthony Davis went to the Lakers locker room midway through the third quarter Sunday night after he was hit in the face while blocking a dunk attempt by Toronto’s Jakob Poeltl.

The nine-time All-Star was ruled out for the remainder of the evening due to an eye injury. The Lakers trailed by three when Poeltl accidentally poked Davis in the eye with his clumsy hand, but Los Angeles rose to a 123-103 victory in the absence of the star big man.

“I just know he got stabbed in the left eye,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “He had trouble seeing. Obviously, you will suffer minor trauma to the eye, and it will take some time to regain your clear vision. But no further update.”

Davis was hurt when he made a sensational block on Poeltl’s dunk attempt in the lane with 5:16 left in the third quarter. As the Lakers’ home crowd roared, Davis fell down in obvious pain, rocking back and forth on the ground with his hands on his face. He lay there for about a minute before walking to the Lakers’ locker room.

LeBron James took the lead in Davis’ absence, recording his 115th triple-double as Los Angeles closed the final 17 minutes on a 53-30 run. James finished with a season-high 19 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds.

“AD is a big rebounder, so I had to pick up some of the slack with the defensive rebounding,” James said. “And now that AD is out, I pay a lot of attention to AD, because he puts so much pressure on the defense this season. I also take on some of that responsibility. It’s something I’ve been able to do for a while, so it’s not difficult for me to take advantage of that, even though that hasn’t been my role so far this year.”

Davis suffered an abrasion to the same eye during a game against Golden State last March. He didn’t miss a game with that painful injury and returned two days later.

Davis is off to an excellent start to the season, prompting early MVP talk. He entered the night leading the NBA in scoring at 32.4 points per game, along with 11.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists, and he already has six 30-point games this season.

Davis had 22 points, four rebounds and two blocks before getting hurt against the Raptors.

Jaxson Hayes took Davis’ spot in the Lakers’ rotation and quickly contributed three dunks and a layup as the Lakers took the lead. Hayes, the only other player taller than 6-foot-1 on the Lakers’ roster, finished with 12 points and six rebounds.

“It requires more from everyone else,” Redick said. “Jaxson showed up at that point, played both ends of the court and gave us some extra possessions. His energy alone, I thought, really boosted the group.”

Davis missed last Wednesday’s game in Memphis with a bruised left heel. The big man has a long history of injury problems, but last season he played a career-high 76 games.

The Lakers’ next game is Wednesday night at home, also against the Grizzlies.

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