What Anthony Davis said after being shut down by the Thunder

After Dallas Mavericks forward Anthony Davis turned in his worst offensive performance season in a 132-111 loss Oklahoma City Thunderfans expressed concern. The Thunder ended the Mavericks’ three-game winning streak on Friday, where Davis finished with a paltry two points on 1-for-9 shooting.

After the loss, Davis discovered the Thunder defensive approach that prevented him from finding his offensive rhythm throughout the night, Ron Howard Jr. said.

“That’s the game plan of most teams, trying to, you know, when I catch the ball, guys get loaded, especially when I had it in the post,” Davis said. “My defender, so they didn’t have Chet on me. So Chet was kind of helping on the baseline. So I wasn’t even sticking to what the guard was, sitting on the elbow. So there’s not a lot of room to operate. But yeah, that was their game plan.”

The Thunder’s help defense made a big difference for Davis, who also said the Mavs didn’t do themselves any favors with their poor spacing on the offensive end of the floor.

“Our offense wasn’t good – our spacing – it was bad – turnovers – things like that. But obviously I hold myself accountable for the game,” Davis added. “But we don’t have time. I don’t have time to dwell on it. We have an 11 p.m. turnaround, we play tomorrow. So I’ll get ready for tomorrow.”

Jaden Hardy 23 points, including 5-of-9 from deep. Naji Marshall finished with 18 points and Cooper Flagg added 16 points.

Cooper Flagg feels ‘better’ after Anthony Davis returns to Mavs

Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg was lucky to have Anthony Davis back to the floor. Davis, three games back from a 14-game absence, helped the Mavs extend their three-game winning streak before heading into Friday’s game against the Thunder.

Flagg found Davis making things better for him and the Mavericks, who went 3-11 during the 14 games the NBA’s leading scorer missed before Friday’s loss.

“Obviously, the caliber of player he is. You know, I think just with him and Klay (Thompson) on the court at the same time, the amount of gravitas those two guys have, pulling the defense towards them and creating space out there, that’s huge for me,” Flagg said.

For the second night of back-to-back games, the Mavericks will host the Rockets on Saturday.