The Dallas Mavericks’ Anthony Davis experience has been filled with many ups and downs over the two months he has been a Maverick, and last night’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers at the American Airlines Center was one of his quietest games since arriving in Dallas, considering all that was at stake going into it.
With Luka Doncic coming home to Dallas, Davis had the chance to silence the doubters with a big performance on the biggest stage, but he did the exact opposite. Davis finished with just 13 points on 5-13 shooting from the field and 0-2 shooting from downtown, and he was an afterthought in this game.
On the other hand, Doncic had one of his best games of the season, finishing with 45 points on 7-10 shooting from downtown. Doncic showed why Nico Harrison should have never traded him to the Lakers, and a key change that the Mavericks and Jason Kidd need to consider for Davis couldn’t be more obvious after watching this game.
Anthony Davis must confront a tough truth about his game
With Davis and Doncic playing against each other for the first time since the trade, a major microscope was on them both. Even Doncic himself noted after the game that he and Davis will probably be compared to each other for a long time since they were traded for each other, and when observing Davis’s game against Los Angeles closely, it may be time for him to play center more often. Davis likes playing power forward more than he does center, and he was vocal about that during his time with the Lakers, but it’s starting to become obvious his better fit may be at center, regardless of his preference.
While this won’t work all the time right now since the Mavericks have Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford running the five, it may be in Kidd and the team’s best interest to start playing him at center more often. Kidd did this a bit late in the first half against the Lakers, and it seemed to work better than when he was playing the five.
When Davis’s mid-range jumper is going down, he can hold his own at the four offensively, but when he can’t get anything to fall, it can quickly become a disaster. Dallas’ roster construciton doesn’t allow him to have much space to operate in the mid-post either since both Gafford and Lively II can’t stretch the floor, and Kidd and Harrison’s next challenge for this summer will be figuring out how to properly build around Davis to bring the best out of him on both ends of the floor.
Davis may eventually need to put his pride to the side and accept the fact that he is a better center than he is a power forward, and if he does this, it’ll help the Mavericks’ offense open up considerably more than what we’ve seen over the last few games. The Mavericks’ spacing has been a major issue with this new look two-big lineup, and they are likely going to need to start shooting more threes and switch things up to get the best out of this team.
Their struggles to get Davis the ball in the mid-post when he was sharing the floor with one of Dallas’ bigs further expose the harsh reality that something may need to change when it comes to how the Mavs use him. He can attack the rim and focus on finishing inside more when he is at center, compared to power forward, and while things will look much different once Kyrie Irving is healthy again, the Mavs may have to have some tough conversations with Davis on the way.