Anthony Davis could not help but grin.

A moment earlier, the 10-time All-Star cut baseline and accepted a pass from P.J. Washington before throwing down a two-handed dunk for the first points in what would be a 120-101 win for his Dallas Mavericks over the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night.

Not a bad way to come back after missing six weeks with a groin injury.

“I feel good,” Davis said after scoring 12 points and grabbing six rebounds. “I feel like I had a great rhythm, to be honest. I wasn’t trying to force anything.”

Davis shot 6-for-9 from the field and added three assists, a steal and a blocked shot in his first game since injuring his groin in his Dallas debut on Feb. 8. That was about a week after the seismic trade that sent Luka Doncic to Los Angeles and enraged many Mavericks fans.

He had been listed as out until the Mavs changed Davis’ injury designation for the first time Sunday when they listed him as doubtful. The designation changed again Monday when Dallas said he was questionable.

During his pregame availability, coach Jason Kidd said Davis would be on a minutes restriction. He was in Dallas’ starting lineup at power forward and played 26:32.

“I stressed to (Mavericks management) that once I’m 100%, whatever that time was and we had games left, I’m going to play,” Davis said. “We all huddled up and got on the same page and like I (said), went through the rehab process and was able to play tonight.

“(There) was never a moment in my mind — unless we ran out of games (or) I wasn’t 100% — I wasn’t going to play.”

The defending Western Conference champions are in a tight race with Phoenix for 10th place in the West, the final spot in the play-in tournament.

Dallas will be without Kyrie Irving for the rest of the season. The star guard tore the ACL in his left knee in a 122-98 loss to Sacramento on March 3.

While the injury to Irving could have been a reason for the Mavericks to consider shutting down Davis, he has continued to work toward a return, going on road trips and staying engaged with his teammates.

Davis had an abdominal injury before the trade, missing his last two games with the Lakers and the first two he could have played for Dallas. When asked if the groin and abdominal injuries were related, Davis said he was unsure.

“You have to commend him for working to get back because it is his job,” Kidd said before the game. “He feels responsible to get back to work. Just understanding that first part is who he is and I think the second part is, yeah, we can always talk about the future and that’s the balance that we have to look at.”

When he did return in a 116-105 victory at home against Houston, Davis had 24 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and all three of his blocks in the first half before pulling up late in the third quarter with a groin injury. He finished with 26 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists.

Seven of Dallas’ remaining 11 games are on the road. The Mavericks are at the New York Knicks on Tuesday, at Orlando on Thursday and at Chicago on Saturday.

“Working to get back with 12 games left just shows how much he cares about what he wants to do, and that’s to help his team win,” Kidd said.

Anthony Davis appears on the verge of returning to the Dallas Mavericks after a six-week injury absence, with the star forward upgraded to questionable against the Brooklyn Nets to start a four-game road trip Monday night.

Davis hasn’t played — and had been listed as out — since injuring his left groin in his Dallas debut on Feb. 8. That was about a week after the seismic trade that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles and enraged many Mavericks fans.

The Mavs changed the 10-time All-Star’s injury designation for the first time Sunday when they listed Davis as doubtful.

The defending Western Conference champions are in a tight race with Phoenix for 10th place in the West, the final spot in the play-in tournament.

Dallas will be without Kyrie Irving for the rest of the season. The star guard tore the ACL in his left knee in a 122-98 loss to Sacramento on March 3.

While the injury to Irving could have been a reason for the Mavericks to consider shutting down Davis, he has continued to work toward a return, going on road trips and staying engaged with his teammates.

Davis had an abdominal injury before the trade, missing his last two games with the Lakers and the first two he could have played for Dallas.

When he did return in a 116-105 victory at home against Houston, Davis had 24 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and all three of his blocks in the first half before pulling up lame late in the third quarter with the groin injury. He finished with 26 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists.

Seven of Dallas’ remaining 11 games are on the road. After playing the Nets, Dallas is at the New York Knicks on Tuesday, at Orlando on Thursday and at Chicago on Saturday.

Earlier this month, Mayor Eric Johnson told a group of U.S. senators that the solution to the housing shortage in Dallas and elsewhere is to cut bureaucratic red tape and make it easier for builders to build.

A dispute over Dallas park fees will give the mayor an opportunity to show he means it.

In February, the City Plan Commission considered a request to increase the fees that developers must pay to Dallas in lieu of dedicating parkland as part of their projects. City staff brought the proposal forward in light of a state law that caps how much large cities can demand in parkland or charge in park acquisition fees.

Under the state law, cities can charge a flat fee per dwelling unit of no more than 2% of the median family income. Dallas city staff proposed raising the park fee to the maximum 2%. Most developers opt for paying this fee rather than building parks themselves.

Currently, a developer must pay $1,165 in park fees for a single-family home. Raising the fee would take that number to $1,308. Apartment builders, however, would feel the increase more acutely. A developer building a complex with 250 apartments of two or more bedrooms would go from paying $229,250 in park fees to $327,000. That’s an increase of 42.62%.

The plan commission wisely interrogated the park fee increase and decided it would be better to halve it instead.

At least two park board members have blasted the move, one calling it “appalling.” They framed it as a setback, and one noted that Dallas’ park fees are among the lowest in the region.

That may be the case, but Dallas is also trying to dig itself out of a reputational hole for being a bureaucratic nightmare for developers. Keeping its fees low where it makes sense should be its strategy.

The use of the park development money collected so far doesn’t make a compelling argument for raising the fees, either. As our colleague Devyani Chhetri reported, the park acquisition fund has collected $17 million since it started in 2019 but has only used about $2.3 million to acquire land in northern Dallas.

Part of the problem has to do with rules about how the money is allocated among seven different zones. City staff is proposing reducing the number of zones to five to make it easier to acquire parkland, which makes sense.

Raising the fee, however, is another matter. Dallas voters approved $345 million in bond money for parks last year. There’s no need to be appalled about a move to lower park fees.

The matter is now expected to move to the City Council. Members should take a measured look at the facts and make a decision consistent with their stated commitment to build more housing in Dallas. It’s not a zero-sum game. The city can make life easier for housing developers while working with the private sector to expand and improve parks.

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