On Monday evening, the Dallas Mavericks picked up a surprise road win against the Denver Nuggets to push their record to 7-15 on the 2025-26 NBA season. The Mavericks were led by Anthony Davis, who scored 34 points to go along with 13 rebounds in this one, and also got a career-best performance from Ryan Nembhard, who poured in 28.
After the game, Davis spoke about how he and the team were able to stay composed despite playing in the notorious Denver altitude.
“I was tired, for sure, but it’s a mental thing. To get back, there’s not many days of practice. Just trying to push through the fatigue of the game,” said Davis, per Mike Curtis of the Dallas Morning News on X, formerly Twitter.
Davis also spoke on a brief finger injury that seemed to bother him at one point of the contest.
“Fingers are good…They’re in tact,” he said.
Overall, things have started to pick up ever so slightly for the Mavericks since Davis returned from injury last week, but they're still eight games under .500 in an extremely difficult Western Conference playoff race, so it would take a whole lot to get this team back into real contention.
Still, for now, Dallas can be happy to see continued progression from younger players like Nembhard, and of course, number one overall pick Cooper Flagg, who had a big game against the Los Angeles Clippers over the weekend and continued that momentum with 24 points against Denver, including some impressive plays in transition.
At this point, it remains unclear if the Mavericks are content with riding things out with this version of the roster and hoping for an additional boost once Kyrie Irving returns, or if they may look to trade one or more of their veterans and embrace a rebuild around Flagg.
They'll next take the floor on Wednesday for a home game vs the Miami Heat.
