Anthony Davis: 'No doubt' about return to help hobbled Mavs - ESPN

NEW YORK — Playing for the first time in over six weeks since aggravating an adductor injury, Dallas Mavericks forward Anthony Davis said he felt «great» while finishing with 12 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and a block in 26 minutes in Monday's 120-101 victory over the Brooklyn Nets.

«Physically I felt great,» Davis said afterward, while seated in the visitors locker room at Barclays Center. «It's the mental aspect when you're coming back from something like that. To mentally be ready to go out and play. I was mentally ready. But then getting into game action where you can't anticipate what the other team is going to do. I overcame that in the first minute or so. From there, it was just about being smart. Obviously, I'm on a minutes restriction.»

Monday's game marked just the second time Davis had taken the court for Dallas since coming to the Mavericks in exchange for Luka Doncic at the start of February. Davis, already dealing with an abdominal strain at the time of the trade, made his debut in Dallas against the Houston Rockets on Feb. 8 — playing 31 minutes and scoring 26 points to go along with 16 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 blocks — before aggravating his injury.

Then, as Davis has sat out for the past six weeks, Dallas has seen a series of players — from Kyrie Irving (torn ACL) to Daniel Gafford (knee sprain), Dante Exum (fractured hand) and Caleb Martin (hip strain), among others — all go down with injuries, often leaving the Mavericks flirting with not having the eight healthy bodies required by league rules to play an NBA game.

To that end, Mavericks coach Jason Kidd joked before the game that over the past few weeks he'd told his players to wait until the 15-minute mark to come to the court to warm up,