The newest member of the Dallas Mavericks will be sidelined indefinitely after Anthony Davis aggravated a left adductor strain in Saturday’s 116-105 win over Houston.
Davis was having himself quite the night with his new club, registering 26pts/16reb/7ast in 31 minutes of action. However, with 1:37 remaining in the 3rd quarter, a rather innocent looking bump doubled over the star forward in pain.
While the 31 year old downplayed the injury in interviews afterwards, the Mavs were quick to rule him out of Monday’s contest against the Sacramento Kings. Now reports are circulating that he could be out for over a month as Dallas continues to jockey for position in the Western Conference standings.
Davis is no stranger to injuries, having missed significant portions of multiple seasons due to a variety of ailments. But the timing of the strain, so early into his new Mavericks career following the blockbuster Luka Doncic deal, will do little to calm a Mavericks fanbase still processing the fallout from seeing the face of their franchise shipped off to the rival Lakers.
Making matters worse, starting forward P.J. Washington was forced to sit out the second half of Saturday’s game after spraining his right ankle. Max Christie continues to recover from a right shoulder strain, and Dante Exum continues to navigate an Achilles issue. All of that put together will leave the Mavericks with multiple players on the wrong side of questionable this week at best, and severely short handed at worst.
When healthy, few will argue that Anthony Davis is an All-NBA calibre player. However, giving up a perennial MVP candidate, who has yet to enter his prime for an aging power forward with an extensive injury history was what had most Mavs fans questioning the deal in the first place. Now, if Doncic goes on to have a massive impact with LA down the stretch, playing with a “chip on his shoulder”, while Davis is forced to watch games in street clothes, it’s just about a nightmare scenario for fans in Dallas.
Photo: Basketball Elite. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.