Look out, the Dallas Mavericks might be putting a late season run together despite their litany of problems.
A week ago the inevitable happened. The Phoenix Suns finally overtook the Dallas Mavericks in 10th position in the Western Conference. It was expected to start the Mavs’ slide down the standings.
Then Anthony Davis elected to make his comeback. The former Laker was desperate to play, and his desire to return has earned praise, and the respect of his teammates.
Davis played his second game post-injury against the Orlando Magic, and it was a very impressive victory for the Mavericks, winning 101-92.
The win was the 36th of the season for the Mavs, taking them back up to 10th spot ahead of the Phoenix Suns.
Anthony Davis posted 15 points during his restricted minutes for the Mavericks, slowly ramping up his return.
Jaden Hardy led the team in points with 22, and he is full of admiration for his new teammate, believing he changes everything for the team.
Hardy told his post-game press conference: “AD has been great since he got here.
“Coming in, we welcome him, make everybody feel comfortable.
“When he’s out there on the floor I feel we are a different team, we play off of him, his ability to bring the ball up, initiate the offense.”
He adds that after the team’s depressing run of injuries and results over the past week, Davis has helped bring some happiness and confidence back to the group.
Hardy said: “I feel like when we out there we move the ball very well and we just have fun.
“This will really lift us, we focus on the next one now, we got to get the next win, get the Play-In and finish the season off strong.”
The Dallas Mavericks stepped up late last season, making a surprise run to the NBA Finals.
A lot has changed since, with Luka Doncic traded away and Kyrie Irving out injured, but Anthony Davis is a great player to have, and Dereck Lively could yet return to pair up with him.
Hardy believes the Mavericks’ players who are available, are applying themselves in the right way to now kick on and go as far as they can, starting with securing a post-season berth.
He said: “You can see the attention to detail everybody locking in, we know what we trying to do, we trying to make it happen.
“The talking was good, second half, everybody out there, we had everybody’s backs.”
