Anthony Davis will make his return for the Dallas Mavericks against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night.
The 32-year-old hasn’t played since making his Mavs debut against the Houston Rockets on Feb. 8. He scored 26 points, grabbed 16 rebounds, dished out seven assists, and swatted three shots before exiting with an adductor strain.
Head coach Jason Kidd said that Davis will be restricted to 28 minutes.
“I think you’ve got to commend him for working to get back,” Kidd said. “This is his job, so he feels responsible to get back to work and just understanding that first part is just who he is, and the second part we can always talk about the future, so that’s the balance we have to look at, and tonight’s the start of the rest of the season.
“But, again, he gets paid to play. His character for working to get back with 12 games left just shows how much he cares about what he wants to do, and that’s to help his team win.”
In 42 games with the Los Angeles Lakers, Davis averaged 25.7 points, 11.9 rebounds, 1.3 steals, and 2.1 blocks. He shot 52.8 percent from the field and 78.8 percent from the free-throw line.
Davis Return Gives Mavs Hope Of Playoffs?
Returning with just 12 games to go, the hope will naturally be that the Mavs can secure the 10th and final spot in the Play-In Tournament.
Dallas is currently tied with Phoenix record-wise at 34-37. The Suns, though, do have the toughest remaining strength of schedule with an opponent win percentage of .618. The Mavs, meanwhile, have an opponent win percentage of .487 to contend with. There is certainly all to play for as far as reaching the Play-In is concerned.
That is far from what the Mavs and Nico Harrison were hoping to accomplish when trading Luka Doncic for Davis. The confounding blockbuster trade was supposed to be a win-now move for a team that already went to the NBA Finals just a season ago.
Kyrie Irving has already been ruled out for the season with a left knee ACL tear. That automatically eliminates them from championship contention this season as probably the following season as well.
Davis is clearly intent on ingratiating himself with the Dallas fan base after all they’ve suffered this season.
