He's Here...

He's back, ladies and gentlemen, and he is here. After missing 18 games due to injury, Anthony Davis has made his return to basketball in tonight's game against the Brooklyn Nets, and although he didn't have a very flashy game, he still played absolutely amazing, still showed us signs and glimpses of what Anthony Davis can definitely be for the Dallas Mavericks. If and when he's fully healthy, he was able to create for himself, create for others, play great defense, get rebounds, he was all over the place, doing all the things that he is known for, which helped us get this win. So, in this video, we're going to take a look at tonight's box score, go over what looked good, what looked bad, and as always, who stood on business. How's it going everybody, my name is Marcel Martin and this is Mavericks Digest bringing you the latest news on everything Mavericks related. And before we get started with today's video, we're currently sitting at 20,053 subscribers. I just want to say thank you to everybody that has shown nothing but support on this channel over the last year. But if you want to be up to date on everything Mavericks related with our live streams, our watch alongs, our news vids, and everything else in between, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss out on a single thing that we do. But the Dallas Mavericks, we have been waiting tirelessly every single day on the return of Anthony Davis. We've been covering his return to play over the last several weeks on this channel with every little update that we've been given. In our last video about Anthony Davis, I even said it. Next week, we should see the return of AD. I wasn't sure how soon it'd be. I thought maybe the Thursday game against the Orlando Magic. But it seems like Anthony Davis decided to come back tonight against the Brooklyn... against the Brooklyn Nets and although he didn't just fill out the stat sheet he still looked very good. He still was able to impact the game to help us win. We were up by as much as 20 points at one point and although Anthony Davis wasn't even our leading scorer he was able to open up the offense for so many other players. So many other guys were benefiting by Anthony Davis just being there and although he is coming back from injury he is far from being 100 percent. There were many times in tonight's game where he was just kind of walking or lightly jogging up and down the court, which is totally fine. We don't want to risk injury. And I know a lot of people out there that are upset at the fact that Andy Davis did come back. Some people are upset because they don't want him to get hurt again. And I'm here to tell you that he played a full game of basketball and did not get hurt. But there are some other people that are upset because they want us to keep losing. They want us to tank. They want to keep that lottery pick. But it looks like we may be locked into that 10th seed as the Phoenix Suns have the hardest schedule left for the remainder of the season, the last 10 games. While the Dallas Mavericks, ours isn't that bad. It's more like middle of the pack. So we very much well could be locked in that 10th seed. We may be forced to go to the play-in. And at that point, why not take these last few games serious? Get these guys ready, because if we're going to play-in, the players are going to try to win. The players don't decide to tank. That's a front office decision, an executive decision, and it gets passed down. But if the players are on the court, The players are going to try to win, and that's exactly what we saw today. We'll take a look right here. Just going off the box score, Anthony Davis had 12 points, 1 block, 1 steal, 3 assists, and 6 rebounds. He was 0 of 2 from 3, but 6 of 9 from the floor. Like I said, wasn't even the highest score, didn't even have the most rebounds, but he was still having a huge impact as he was a plus 12, the highest out of all of our starters. And P.J. Washington had 16 points, 1 steal, 5 assists, 2 rebounds. He was 1 of 1 from the free throw line, 1 of 2 from 3, and 7 of 12 from the floor. Had a little bit of a shaky start to the game. He did have to leave in the second quarter right before halftime. Twisted his ankle, rolled it in a weird way. I wasn't worried, but I know a lot of people were concerned as we're getting injured every single game. But P.J. did come back. He looked fine. He may have to ice it. Not sure if he's going to have to miss tomorrow's game. I don't think it was that serious, as he did finish up tonight's game. But all in all, P.J. had a very nice game. And Kai Jones, our two-way guy who is impressing every single game, has yet to see him have a bad game, had 13 points. One steal, nine rebounds, was three of five from the free throw line, and five of five from the floor was 100%. Didn't miss a single shot except for the free throws. He looked amazing. He was a plus 11. He only had one turnover, two fouls. Kai Jones is amazing. He's a lob threat, as tonight he was dunking all over the place. Wasn't afraid of whoever's in front of him. Just going up with authority and just bringing it down, getting rebounds. But one thing I notice a lot about Kai Jones is his basketball IQ. A lot of bigs, when you pass them down low, they just want to go and attack the basket. But Kai Jones, a lot of the time, would easily just pass it back. I'm like, oh no, this isn't a good spot. I'm not in a good spot. Whereas, whenever he does get it down low, he wants to score, he'll wait. He'll wait for the defenders to try and jump and block him, and he goes right up for an easy dunk. I like the instincts that Kai Jones has, and the way that he approaches the game is very methodical, is very patient, and this is something that the Mavericks have to capitalize on. I know we got Gafford, I know we got Lively, we got PJ, we got AD, we got Dwight Powell. Why not keep Kai Jones? I know we're going to need a guard eventually, but let's keep the good talent that we do have and not just let it go for nothing just because it's not a need positionally. In my opinion, we've got to keep Kai Jones. Spencer Dinwiddie had 16 points, 4 steals, 12 assists, 1 rebound, was 0-2 from the free throw line, 2-5 from 3, and 7-10 from the floor. Had a great game. Good job, Spencer. And Klay Thompson had 8 points. 2 assists, 3 rebounds, shot 2 of 8 from 3 and 3 of 9 from the floor. And off the bench, Najee Marshall had 22 points, 2 assists, 4 rebounds, shot 2 of 2 from the free throw line, 2 of 4 from 3 and 9 of 15 from the floor. An excellent game from Najee Marshall. He was the highest in the box plus minus or the plus 22. Najee Marshall, after having an amazing run over the last several weeks, as a starter, is showing you it doesn't matter if he starts or he comes off the bench. Najee Marshall will produce. Dwight Powell had 4 points, 1 steal, 2 assists, and 6 rebounds. Brandon Williams had 15 points, 1 steal, 4 assists, and 5 rebounds. Max Christie had 10 points, 1 steal, 2 assists, and 5 rebounds. And Jaden Hardy, 4 points, 2 assists, 2 turnovers. 0-2 from three, 2-7 from the floor. Not the best game from Jaden Hardy. As we already know, he's hot and cold, up and down. You never know which version of Jaden Hardy you're going to get. He's our own mini Tim Harvey Jr. all over again, it feels like. But the bench definitely stepped up all together. They did a very good job. We never had to sub somebody in and out. I wasn't too worried. I wasn't, oh, we don't have anybody. Oh, we had about 10 players play tonight. So we had more than enough to take on the Brooklyn Nets. Like I said, it's just the Brooklyn Nets. I understand they're not a real threat in the East. But if we didn't have Anthony Davis, this game would have been a little bit more difficult. Like I said, he has the gravity to open up for other players, as well as being a threat down low against other bigs like Nick Claxton tonight, who really couldn't do anything against both Kai Jones and Anthony Davis. But as always, we've got to talk about who stood on business, and I think it's very clear who that was. Although it was his return game, I can't give it to AD. It's going to Najee Marshall, who had 22 points, 2 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 of 4 from 3, and 9 of 15 from the field. Looked absolutely amazing. I really do hope that this bleeds into next season, where Najee Marshall can continue to be just a huge asset for the team. But a few things I want to show you really quick. Like I said, Najee Marshall posted his 14th 20-point effort of the year with 22 points tonight at Brooklyn. He scored 15-plus points for the 11th straight game, including 20 points for the 8th time in that stretch. Marshall is averaging 22.2 points, shooting 52% from the floor. Over his last 11 games. And that's why he's standing on business. He's showing us that he is reliable. We can lean on him. We can go to him. We can trust him. Which means Jason Kidd can trust him. Which means we don't have to worry about his minutes. Just going all over the place. Especially when guys come back and we are fully healthy. I do believe that Najee Marshall will be that six man off the bench that we will need. And it's good to know that we have a player like him. As well as... Oh, I'm all over the place. Kai Jones tonight, 13 points, 9 rebounds, was 100% from the floor in 28 minutes. Kai Jones has yet to have a bad game with the Dallas Mavericks. He's been breaking his own records for his season high, his career high. He just continues to impress, and like I said before, he is a player that the Dallas Mavericks desperately need to do whatever they can to keep him. Kai Jones will be huge for the Dallas Mavericks down the road going into next season where we won't have Kyrie for the majority of the season. It feels like so we need as many good players as possible. Not saying that Kai Jones will replace Kyrie. They're not in the same position, but just to have players there that we can rely on. We can go to try something different. We will be totally fine. And Kai Jones has shown us again and again and again. He is the player that we need. And just to wrap up this video, we got a few more things. Kai Jones recorded 13 points and nine rebounds. time, double-digit scoring, and as many games for the Mavericks. He had four total games with 10-plus points in his career prior. Jones is shooting 90% from the field in his four games with Dallas. Absolutely insane. If you need any more proof as to why Kai Jones needs to stay here, it's right there. And just to finish this video, I promise the last thing. And one of the things that I really did like about tonight's game, it really wasn't about AD and just coming out and looking unstoppable. Even though AD coming back was huge and it helped a lot of other players, we really didn't have one guy just do everything. And you could argue, oh, it was Najee Marshall. He had 22 points. P.J. had 16, A.D. had 12, I mean, sorry, yeah, P.J. had 16, A.D. had 12, Kai Jones had 13, everybody was contributing, whether it was the starters or guys coming off the bench. And I hope to think, and I'd like to think, that going forward in the future, the Dallas Mavericks identity, now that we do have A.D., we will soon have Kyrie next year, that our identity will change to being a more teams-focused offense, not really relying on one player to do it all, but to allow that one player to help other players get theirs as well. But let me know what you think in the comment section down below. Do you think that AD should have came back? Do you think he should have just rested for the rest of the season and let us tank? Let me know what you think in the comment section down below. We could have a conversation about it. But that's all I got for you guys today. Thanks for making it this far to the video. Make sure to check out our Twitter and Discord. Links in the description below. Consider becoming a channel member. We are doing giveaway every single month on this channel. Only way to enter our giveaways is to become a channel member of any tier. But until next time, y'all take care. Drink water. Peace.