With just nine games remaining in their regular season, the Dallas Mavericks have a great shot at gaining home-court advantage in a potential first-round play-in bout between the ninth and 10th seeds. The Mavericks are currently in the 11th seed, even though they have the same record as the Phoenix Suns, as Phoenix holds the tiebreaker with Dallas this season, but the Mavericks and Suns are both only a half-game back from tying the Sacramento Kings for the ninth seed.
Dallas' season has gone completely haywire due to the Luka Doncic trade and an unprecedented amount of recurring injuries in their rotation, but the Mavericks are showing no signs of waving the white flag this season, and players on the team are poised to keep fighting amidst all the adversity they've encountered this season.
Anthony Davis' return to action is a reflection of this attitude, as Davis easily could've curtailed playing this season and could've opted to get surgery on his adductor after Kyrie Irving went down with a torn ACL on March 3. However, Davis saw Dallas fighting tooth and nail to stay alive in the playoff race despite only having seven or eight players in their rotation at times in recent weeks, and he wasn't going to let his new teammates down.
Anthony Davis is a tried and true competitor no matter the situation
Davis' competitive edge to return as soon as possible from injury is fairly common among superstar players, and Mavericks fans saw this with Doncic when he was in Dallas too, even if it wasn't something that was always beneficial. The Mavericks and head coach Jason Kidd are playing a fine line between ramping up Davis for the playoffs and not rushing him back too hard, which is the least they could do considering Davis got re-injured in his Mavericks debut, which could've been partially attributed to trying to return to play as quickly as possible to prove a point.
Correlation doesn't denote causation when it comes to injuries, as Kidd and Irving have said about Irving's torn ACL, but that doesn't mean that certain factors can't increase the likelihood of an injury. Davis was on a minute restriction in his return to play versus the Brooklyn Nets and didn't play on the second night of a back-to-back versus the New York Knicks on Tuesday, but it wouldn't be surprising to see those restrictions get lifted as Dallas approaches closer to the playoffs so long as Davis shows formidable progress in the coming games.
Davis is set to play tonight versus the Orlando Magic, and while he and Kai Jones will be the ones primarily dealing with a lengthy Magic front-court this evening, Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II are reportedly poised to join the Mavericks before the end of the regular season. It will be very interesting to see how fast and effectively Kidd can mix and match Dallas' elite trio of rim protectors, and hopefully the return of the other two centers will take a toll off Davis from having to bang against fives all game long, which is another part of the reason he's been injury plagued throughout certain stretches of his career.
Despite the optimism surrounding the combination of these bigs, Davis still didn't have anywhere close to a good enough reason to put off surgery en route to a return this season after Irving went down. He clearly wants to prove to Mavericks fans that he is no quitter in any capacity, and Mavericks fans can't blame him for pining heavily for the organization to return, despite how it could negatively affect Dallas' lottery odds if they move up another slot or two in the Western Conference standings.
Davis may not be the superstar Mavericks fans wanted after the heartbreak from the Doncic trade, but Mavericks fans can't knock his character or approach to this situation whatsoever, as he desperately wants to show Mavericks fans that Dallas didn't just take back some scrub in this deal. All signs are pointing toward this trade going terrible in the long-term, but Davis didn't ask to be traded to Dallas and will do whatever he can to uplift the city of Dallas and the Mavericks despite being put in an unfathomable situation, which is very commendable and exactly what Mavericks fans should want out of their new superstar.
