Injured Davis ‘making good progress’

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Anthony Davis, the star forward who landed in Dallas in the shock trade that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, will miss at least two more weeks with an adductor muscle strain, the Mavericks said Thursday.

The Mavericks said in a statement that Davis is “making good progress” in his recovery.

“Davis will be reevaluated in two weeks with further updates to follow, as necessary,” the team said.

Davis had been nursing an abdominal strain suffered in a 28 January Lakers game when he was traded to the Mavericks, a deal that left many Dallas fans fuming.

He missed the Mavericks’ first three games after the deal, but was dazzling in his Dallas debut on 8 February before he pulled up in pain with less than three minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Davis, a 10-time All-Star, had scored 26 points with 16 rebounds, seven assists and three blocked shots before exiting the game — a 116-105 Mavs victory over the Houston Rockets.

Davis downplayed the injury immediately after the game, but he will miss a minimum of 10 games — including seven over the next two weeks.

He also was ruled out of Sunday’s All-Star Game in San Francisco.

The Mavericks, currently eighth in the Western Conference with a record of 30-26, are also without big men Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II. Gafford has a knee sprain and Lively has a stress fracture in one ankle.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis Jr. has been suspended for 25 games for violating the league’s anti-drug policy.

In a statement, the NBA said Portis tested positive for tramadol, a prescription pain medication that his representative told ESPN the player took by mistake.

“I am devastated for Bobby right now because he made an honest mistake and the ramifications of it are incredibly significant,” Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports told ESPN.

“Bobby unintentionally took a pain medication called tramadol, thinking he was taking a pain medication called Toradol. Toradol is an approved pain medication that he has used previously and that teams and players use for pain and inflammation at times.”

Toradol is a brand name for the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory ketorolac.

The suspension means Portis, who helped the Bucks win the 2021 NBA championship, will miss most of the Bucks’ remaining 29 regular-season games.

He will be eligible to return on 8 April against the Minnesota Timberwolves, with four games left in the regular season.

The loss of Portis, a key reserve, is a blow to a Bucks team in fifth place in the East.

Portis, who has finished in the top three in voting for the Sixth Man of the Year award the past two seasons, is averaging 13.7 points and 8.3 rebounds in 46 games this season.