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Mavericks' Anthony Davis Takes Big Step Towards Return in Latest Injury Update

Davis suffered an adductor strain in his first game as a Maverick.

Liam McKeone

Davis appeared in only one game for Dallas before getting hurt
Davis appeared in only one game for Dallas before getting hurt / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images
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After weeks of the Dallas Mavericks' season continuing to devolve into something out of a horror movie, Monday finally brought some good news.

The team announced Anthony Davis, the superstar forward who was the centerpiece of the Luka Doncic trade, had been assigned to the Texas Legends, the Mavericks' G-League team, to continue his rehab. Davis suffered an adductor injury in his first game in Dallas and has not played since February 8.

Shortly after the announcement NBA insider Marc Stein reported Davis was slated to practice with the Legends and is "very eager" to return to play before the end of the season.

This move indicates Davis is pretty close to coming back. Usually, NBA players get practice time with the G-League team and then return to normal practice with their teammates. At that point they're more or less ready to go, and end up back on the court pretty quickly. In other words, this is roughly the third-to-last step Davis takes before he plays NBA basketball again.

It's a positive development for the Mavs in numerous ways, not the least of which being that they may struggle to field enough players to avoid a forfeit for some games down the stretch without Davis active and healthy. It also comes as a boon to many fans that might have thought Davis was set to be shut down for the year.

Entering Monday, the Mavericks are 33-36 with a 2.5 game lead over the Phoenix Suns for the 10th seed and the last play-in tournament spot. Any realistic hope of a deep playoff run was shot when Kyrie Irving tore his ACL, at which point Shams Charania suggested Davis might just sit out the rest of the season instead of risking injury by playing for a team with no championship aspirations. It wouldn't have been surprising to see him or the Mavericks choose that path, all things considered.

But Davis's rehab is continuing as scheduled and it seems Mavs fans may see him again in one of the team's final 13 games.

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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.

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