The Chicago Bulls enter their matchup with the Dallas Mavericks at the United Center on Saturday as winners of four straight games. The Bulls have pulled off impressive wins against two Western Conference powers this week, completing sweeps of the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers.
Led by the heroics of young talent like Coby White, Josh Giddey, and Matas Buzelis, the Bulls are in ninth place in the Eastern Conference and two games back from the Atlanta Hawks for seventh place with nine games remaining in the regular season.
While a scrappy Bulls team is fighting to make the postseason, a veteran on the Mavs is trying to keep Dallas’ playoff hopes alive. Following the trade of Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Mavs have been hit by a rash of troubling injuries.
Anthony Davis missed played in three quarters for Dallas on Feb. 8 before sitting for several weeks due to a left adductor strain. He returned to action on Monday. On March 3, the Mavs lost Davis’ fellow star Kyrie Irving for the season after he tore his ACL.
Despite losing Irving, the Mavs chose not to punt on the season and rest Davis this spring. Dallas enters Saturday’s contest with in 10th place in the Western Conference at 36-38. They are one game ahead of the Phoenix Suns for the final spot in the Play-In Tournament.
Anthony Davis has a warning for opponents
In an interview with Marc J. Spears of Andscape, Davis gave a warning to Dallas’ opponents for the remainder of the regular season, saying his goal is to compete to make the Play-In Tournament.
“We were playing with six, seven, eight guys who were coming in after playing a game 40, 42 minutes drained, tired, having to play back-to-backs, having to come in and still [weight] lift and get their shots [up]. That was a motivator for me,” Davis said of why he returned to action in the regular season. “I knew I was going [to come back] just because of the amount of games we had left. And not even that, just the position we were in, too.
“We are half a game behind Phoenix. But we got a chance. [Eight] games left. We are trying to try to make a push to get into these playoffs and just take it from there.”
The Chicago Bulls need to be on guard
A week ago, the Mavs appeared to be a gimmie game for a suddenly hot Bulls team. Chicago will face a tough challenge against a Dallas team that has a star power forward on the court.
Davis played in 29 minutes against the Orlando Magic on Thursday, scoring 15 points and recording seven rebounds and two assists. He put up 12 points, three assists, and six rebounds in 27 minutes during his return against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday.
While those stats are down from his season average of 25.2 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game, he should be more dangerous against the Bulls as he ramps up in the Mavs’ quest to make the playoffs.
The Mavericks won their first game against the Bulls this season 119-99 in Dallas on Nov. 6.
The rosters have changed since that meeting as Zach LaVine was in Chicago and Davis was in Los Angeles for that matchup. Davis, a native of Chicago, will play the Bulls for the first time in a Mavs uniform.
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