After missing more than six weeks due to an adductor injury, Dallas Mavericks forward Anthony Davis returned to play and said he felt “great” during the team’s 120-101 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Monday. Davis finished the game with 12 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal, and a block in 26 minutes.
“Physically I felt great,” Davis said after the game in the visitors’ locker room at Barclays Center. “It’s the mental aspect when you’re coming back from something like that.
To mentally be ready to go out and play. I was mentally ready. But then getting into game action where you can’t anticipate what the other team is going to do. I overcame that in the first minute or so. From there, it was just about being smart. Obviously, I’m on a minutes restriction.”
Monday’s game was just the second time Davis played for Dallas after being traded for Luka Doncic in February. Davis, who had an abdominal strain at the time of the trade, made his debut for the Mavericks against the Houston Rockets on February 8. He played 31 minutes, scored 26 points, grabbed 16 rebounds, added 7 assists, and blocked 3 shots before his injury worsened.
During the six weeks Davis was sidelined, many other Mavericks players were injured, including Kyrie Irving (torn ACL), Daniel Gafford (knee sprain), Dante Exum (fractured hand), and Caleb Martin (hip strain). The team was often close to not having enough healthy players to meet the league’s required minimum of eight healthy players.
Before the game, Mavericks coach Jason Kidd joked that, due to the team’s injuries, he had told players to wait until 15 minutes before the game to warm up, rather than the usual 20 minutes, to save energy. However, the return of third-year big man Dereck Lively II in the next few weeks may help improve the situation.
Anthony Davis responds to a question in the news conference“It was tough seeing these guys battling every single night. Winning close games,” Davis said. “Losing close games
Blowing teams out. Getting blown out. They are laying it on the line. For me, it was never a thought about if I was going to come back and play. Especially if I was healthy.
We are undermanned. Guys are hurt. Gafford. Lively. Kyrie goes out. It was tough. Guys were leaving it on the floor. Guys laying on the floor in the locker room afterwards just gassed — to the point of exhaustion. There was no doubt I was going to come back and play. That makes you want to come out and play with these guys. Leave it on the floor and battle each and every night.”
“As one of the leaders of the team, I just wanted to go out there and give them a breather at least.”
Irving’s injury was a big setback for the Mavericks, as he tore his left ACL after landing awkwardly on a drive against the Sacramento Kings three weeks ago. After Irving made two free throws while clearly in pain, Davis was one of the people who helped him off the floor.
Now out for the rest of this season and likely much of next season, Irving was with the team in Brooklyn, where he played for parts of four seasons with the Nets.
“It was devastating,” Davis said about Irving’s injury. “Kyrie is a phenomenal basketball player. But even more phenomenal human. Any time anyone goes through something like that, an injury like that, it always sucks. Obviously, the initial injury, the initial moment, you want to give him space. Then he came back to the locker room. Got everything out of his system. Now he’s excited about the rehab process.
“He’s in a good headspace now … to see him in a great headspace, it’s good for our team. Good for me. And, I’m pretty sure, good for him. Obviously, it sucks. But we have to hold the fort down for this season, and into next season, until he’s ready to come back.”
Davis, however, was ready to play again on Monday. Before the game, Kidd said he hoped it would be a positive, healthy experience for Davis, given all the injuries Dallas had faced recently. The coach was pleased with how things went.
Anthony Davis leaves the game in the 3rd quarter“It was a positive experience,” Kidd said. “We tried to keep his run short
We tried to keep him under his minutes, and I thought he did an incredible job. I thought his rhythm was good. Sometimes when you get a player back like AD, you want to dump the ball to him every time. I thought the guys did a good job of being aggressive and letting the ball find him.”
However, despite the optimism surrounding Davis’ return, the team he came back to has different expectations than what Dallas had when the controversial trade was made. Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison had declared that the team had a “three- to four-year” window to win titles.
After Monday’s win, Dallas is a half-game ahead of the Phoenix Suns for the 10th and final spot in the Western Conference play-in race, depending on Phoenix’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks later that night.
Still, that didn’t stop Davis from wanting to return as soon as he could.
“I stressed that to them,” Davis said. “Once I’m 100 percent, whenever that time was, and we have games left, I’m going to play. We all huddled up and got on the same page. Went through the rehab process and was able to play tonight. There was never a moment in my mind — unless we ran out of games — that I wasn’t going to play.
“Seeing these guys playing with seven guys. Guys playing 38, 40 minutes. We just don’t have enough bodies. Kessler Edwards is playing the 5. Naji [Marshall] is playing the 5.
Added a little bit more motivation for me. I was already motivated to get back. But it added a little bit more motivation seeing those guys battle each and every night. And leaving it on the floor.
“There was no doubt in my mind I was going to come back.”
