{"id":123211,"date":"2025-02-10T23:25:59","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T04:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=123211"},"modified":"2025-02-10T23:25:59","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T04:25:59","slug":"mavs-not-sure-anthony-davis-daniel-gafford-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/10\/mavs-not-sure-anthony-davis-daniel-gafford-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavs Not Sure When Big Man Will Be Back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In what was a particularly tense time for the Dallas Mavericks, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis<\/a> sustained an adductor injury during <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/10\/anthony-davis-injury-report-better-than-sounds-mavs\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">his dominant team debut<\/a>. Already recovering from an abdominal strain, the big man will reportedly be out for multiple weeks and potentially a month. It&#8217;s subsequently possible that nine-time All-Star will be sidelined through early March.\u00a0 However, the 31-year-old is expected to explore options that&#8217;ll allow him to avoid surgery.<\/p>\n<h2>Mavs Not Sure When Anthony Davis Will Be Back<\/h2>\n<p>Prior to Monday&#8217;s game against the Sacramento Kings, Mavs head coach Jason Kidd addressed Davis&#8217;s injury, confirming that he was &#8220;still being evaluated.&#8221; There&#8217;s no firm timetable for his return. With that being said, due to his injury history, an indefinite absence sounds daunting. The Mavs are eight-place in the Western Conference standings; a Play-In team.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jason Kidd says Anthony Davis is \u201cstill being evaluated\u201d for his left adductor strain. There isn\u2019t a timetable for his return.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mike Curtis (@MikeACurtis2) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeACurtis2\/status\/1889100515268567247?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Dallas had gone 15-16 without <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doncilu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luka Doncic<\/a> this season before he was traded. If they can replicate those results, they should remain in postseason contention. Yet, there&#8217;s no denying they&#8217;re fighting an uphill battle<\/p>\n<h3>Daniel Gafford Goes Down<\/h3>\n<p>Early in the second quarter of their battle with the Mavs, starting center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gaffoda01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daniel Gafford<\/a> suffered what looks to be a serious knee injury. Backup center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/livelde01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dereck Lively II<\/a> is already out for the season with a fractured ankle. Even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/poweldw01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dwight Powell<\/a> is out with an ankle injury, though he&#8217;s day-to-day.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Daniel Gafford injured his knee and was helped by multiple people to the Dallas Mavericks\u2019 locker room. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hKpEFlal86\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/hKpEFlal86<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Grant Afseth (@GrantAfseth) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GrantAfseth\/status\/1889135507113705641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 11, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This has left the Mavericks thin at the center position in more ways than one.<\/p>\n<h3>Do They Have Enough?<\/h3>\n<p>Without their top big men available, Kidd has gone to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/prospol01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Olivier-Maxence Prosper<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/edwarke02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kessler Edwards<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Both Prosper and Edwards are lithe, lanky, and confident enough to shoot from deep. However, neither has the size to impose their will in the paint. Truthfully, as much as their activity helps them, their slender frames and lack of height can make them a liability. Sacramento tried to exploit that with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/v\/valanjo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jonas Valanciunas<\/a> and other teams will as well.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, Dallas is a relatively solid defensive team. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/irvinky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyrie Irving<\/a> is still showing why he just made <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/10\/mavs-all-star-kyrie-irving-anthony-davis-injury-replacement\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">his ninth All-Star Game<\/a>. On top of that, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompkl01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Klay Thompson<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/dinwisp01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Spencer Dinwiddie<\/a> are constant scoring threats. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/chrisma02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Max Christie<\/a> has been aggressive offensively, filling in well for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/grimequ01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Quentin Grimes<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/marshna01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Naji Marshall<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hardyja02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jaden Hardy<\/a> can get it going too.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;re missing key players but do they have enough? Or will they need to sign a center with their remaining roster spot?<\/p>\n<div class=\"modal-image-setImageMetadata\">\n<p class=\"ng-binding\">\u00a9 Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In what was a particularly tense time for the Dallas Mavericks, Anthony Davis sustained an adductor injury during his dominant team debut. Already recovering from an abdominal strain, the big man will reportedly be out for multiple weeks and potentially a month. It&#8217;s subsequently possible that nine-time All-Star will be sidelined through early March.\u00a0 However, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":123227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,1608,62,3,29],"tags":[240,1453,4745],"class_list":["post-123211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mavericks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","category-kings","tag-anthony-davis","tag-daniel-gafford","tag-nba-injuries"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123211"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123228,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123211\/revisions\/123228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}