Davis Faces Butler as Mavs Battle Warriors; Don't Sleep on the Sacramento Kings
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 12 Feb 2025
After an impressive debut that saw him topped his winning team in scoring and rebounding despite going out in the third quarter, Anthony Davis will have another chance to prove his worth as Dallas Mavericks host potential rival Golden State Warriors starring trade acquisition Jimmy Butler tomorrow.
Butler himself had another impressive game, his second; with the Warriors blending well with Steph Curry and company in burying Milwaukee Bucks, 125-111 in Milwaukee. He scored 25 points in his debut helping Golden State to a 132-111 thrashing of the Chicago Bulls.
Davis scored a game high 26 points and 16 rebounds in a home win over another potential rival Houston Rockets. However he had to take himself out of the game after the third quarter due to recurred abdominal strain, an old injury when he was still playing with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Davis and Butler are no stranger to each other having involved in numerous regular season matches as well as All Stars games and the NBA Finals in 2019-20 when they were still with LA and the Miami Heat.
In his debut, Davis virtually helped the Mavs sew up the game against Houston by accounting for most of the points that powered the Mavs to a 65-48 halftime lead over the Rockets. However, without him, the Mavs dropped a 129-128 overtime home loss to yet another potential post season rivals, the Sacramento Kings yesterday.
In his last game, Butler scored the last six points ending the third period that widened the Warriors lead to 89-83. He was also involved in plays that allowed Curry and shooting center Quentin Post to some of picture perfect three point baskets in the breakaway against the Bucks who missed star bigman Giannis Antetokoumtpo.
There will definitely instances where Davis and Butler will be fitted at each other in tomorrow's game though they play different positions, i.e. Davis primarily as power forward and at times, center and Butler as shooting forward or guard. The Warriors may also try the 7-0 Post, whose contract has been upgraded to regular one due to his good showing.
Of course, attention will also be on the one upmanship duel between Mavs Klay Thomson, Kyrie Irving and Spencer Dinwiddle on one side and Warriors Curry, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody on the other. But much interest would be on the new kids on the block so to speak and that include Davis ex Lakers teammate Maxie Christie who also has contributed in the Mavs' past two games.
Currently, Dallas is 8th with a record of 28-26 closely followed by Golden State and Sacramento both at 27-26. If the trend continues, these three teams may figure in the play-in for the last spot in the playoffs. Oklahoma City Thunder is dominating the West with a record of 42-9.
But the Western Conference teams as a whole should not sleep on the Sacramento team which has been bolstered by the arrival of DeMar Derozan and Zack LaVine and boosts of two tough talented bigmen in seven footers Domantas Sabonis and Jonas Valenciunas
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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