Mavericks forward/center Anthony Davis suffered a left hand injury late in the fourth quarter of Thursday’s two-point loss at Utah. The injury appeared to occur when he was defending Lauri Markkanen on a drive (Twitter video link).
Despite clearly being bothered, Davis initially said he was OK to stay in the game, tweets Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News, before checking out with 2:08 remaining. The 32-year-old was “doubled over in pain” in the tunnel of the arena and did not return, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter link).
“He hurt his left hand. That’s all we had,” head coach Jason Kidd said after the game (Twitter link via Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal).
The five-time All-NBA big man finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds and four assists in 35 minutes as Dallas fell to 14-24.
Backup guard Brandon Williams was also forced to leave Thursday’s loss early due to an illness, the Mavs announced (via Twitter). The 26-year-old had scored in double figures in five consecutive games heading into Thursday, averaging 19.0 PPG, 4.4 RPG and 3.4 APG in 27.0 MPG over that span, but was limited to two points in just under nine minutes tonight.