Luka Dončić's Lakers Defeat Shorthanded Mavericks in 'Awkward' First Matchup Since Trade
Luka Dončić shines with a triple-double, leading the Lakers to a 107-99 victory over his former team, the Dallas Mavericks, in an emotional matchup at Crypto.com Arena.
LOS ANGELES — Luka Dončić, who totaled 19 points, 15 rebounds, and 12 assists, registered a triple-double in his first game against his former team, and the Los Angeles Lakers (35-21) defeated the Dallas Mavericks (31-28), 107-99, Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena. The timing was fitting for Dončić’s first triple-double as a member of his new organization.
In Dončić’s pre-game workout, he was business as usual. He didn’t interact with any of his former teammates or coaches. Instead, he focused entirely on preparation, even with Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison seated at the scorer’s table for a solid portion of his workout. Before the opening tipoff, Dončić greeted his former teammates. One interaction included his signature handshake with Irving. Months ago, just about anybody would have considered such a sight while Dončić donned a purple and gold Lakers uniform unfathomable.
"Kyrie is my hermano. We go beyond basketball. It was good to see those guys,” Dončić said of seeing his former Mavericks teammates. “We went to wars together, and it was really fun to see them all."
For both sides, it was a matchup described as “awkward” and “weird” to face the team’s former 25-year-old generational talent after coming off a season that ended with that same player leading them to their organization’s first NBA Finals appearance since their 2011 championship. Dončić admitted that he’s still processing the trade finalized on Feb. 2. This trade ended his tenure, which was set to reach seven full seasons if he had closed out his 2024-25 campaign in Dallas.
“The closure is going to take a while, I think. I don't know. It's just, it's not ideal,” Dončić said of facing the Mavericks. “Like I said, I'm glad this game is over. There was a lot of emotions. It will go little by little. Every day is better.”
Irving described the first matchup against Dončić, who calls his “hermano” (Spanish for brother) as being “awkward as shit.” When Irving arrived via trade from the Brooklyn Nets, there were high expectations about what the group could achieve. The first season ended with a two-game tanking effort after injuries and chemistry-building proved too much to overcome with a limited window after the midseason move. The duo, which played 109 games together (including playoffs), then led the Mavericks to a Finals appearance in their only complete season together.
“Awkward as shit. It was awkward, but now I can talk about the emotions. Yeah, no, it was awkward, but at the same time, it was fun,” Irving admitted. “We got a chance to feel like we were in practice all over again, going at each other. That was a good reflection point, and then just seeing the crowd cheer for him and just get him going and see him make some of the tough shots that I've seen him make thousands of times. That probably made it even more awkward. But it was fun. It's fun competing.”
When reflecting on their bond, Irving acknowledged that his relationship with Dončić is “one of those lifetime things” that goes “deeper than basketball.” Irving credited last season’s 12-day international preseason trip, which included stops in Abu Dhabi and Madrid, with building a greater connection between him and Dončić, allowing their families and support systems to connect.
“We had a lot of fun, bro, you know, we went to Madrid. We started preseason in Abu Dhabi, which helped us out a lot, man,” Irving said of Dončić When you're on the road, and you get to know someone and their family, and you introduce everybody to your friends, and my day was very special because that's where he played, and I got a chance to meet some of his friends and his support system out there. I think that just carried over into the season.
“It was just great spirits coming into the last season, and it was easy to compliment him while he's having an MVP-caliber season. I feel like he, if not deserved MVP, finished second, but at the same time, he carried us a lot, a lot of the way where I was injured or hurt, and he carried the brunt of the responsibility."
“So I think for me, it was respect there before we played together, but then playing with him, he's just an innocent kid at the same time, just ultra-talented, the whole world is in front of him. You want to protect people like that, too, because I feel like sometimes people come at him crazy, you know, which is unnecessary. He responds in his own way, but he's not from America. He's not used to the degenerative culture here — at times, especially when the narrative starts spinning. So my goal was just to protect him, man. That's why it goes deeper than basketball.”
Focused on the game itself, Dallas continued to play without Anthony Davis (left adductor strain), Dereck Lively II (right ankle stress fracture), and Daniel Gafford (right knee sprain). Kessler Edwards, the Mavericks’ 6-foot-7 two-way contract wing, continued to start at center. Dwight Powell returned from a right hip strain that sidelined him since Jan. 17, logging 2 points, 5 rebounds, and 1 block in 16 minutes. Health has remained a significant part of the Mavericks’ journey this season, with Davis, Gafford, and Lively set to be re-evaluated on March 6.
Irving did his best to guide the shorthanded Mavericks with 35 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. Klay Thompson also provided a spark with 22 points and 8 rebounds. The rest of the team scored only 42 points, shooting 15 of 54 (27.8%) overall and 7 of 23 (30.4%) from the perimeter. Even when factoring in Irving and Thompson, Dallas shot 35.7% from the floor but did manage to go 38.6% from deep on 44 tries and made 12 of 13 (92.3%) free throws.
“I don’t know if they didn’t get a rhythm. They didn’t make shots. It’s basketball,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said. “You can’t be perfect. You can’t make them all. PJ didn’t make any tonight and we still had a chance to get a lead in that game and find a way to win on the road. It’s a very talented team. It shows the character in the group. You can say next man up, and we put ourselves in a position to get away, and we came up short.”
P.J. Washington had a brutal shooting night, going scoreless in 35 minutes despite shooting nine times. He did contribute 10 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 blocks while frequently having to take on top defensive assignments. Max Christie recorded 10 points and 6 assists in his first game against his former team but shot just 4 of 13 from the floor. None of Dallas’ bench players scored double figures, but Naji Marshall came close with 9 points while adding 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.
The Lakers were led by Dončić, and LeBron James also had a dynamic performance, particularly down the stretch. James scored 27 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 assists. Austin Reaves scored 20 points and 5 assists for Los Angeles, while Rui Hachimura contributed 15 points and 6 rebounds. The team’s top-scoring options proved challenging, especially without the Mavericks benefiting from rim protection.
The Lakers established momentum early from the opening tip, building a 9-2 lead. This stretch featured Dončić finishing at the rim using a slow step, while James capped off the run with a catch-and-shoot three after Dončić found him on a reversal. Los Angeles set the tone defensively, with Dončić recording 3 steals and 2 blocks on the night, rising to the occasion against his former team.
“I thought he handled it well,” Redick said of Dončić’s handling of an emotional matchup. “Not a great shooting night but he made a lot of plays and had some good defensive plays as well. I just thought he clearly was worked up to start the game. That’s the expected, but I thought he settled in. I think some of the stuff with our offensive shooting woes was due to some organization problems and some spacing problems. That affected everybody and it affected him as well.”
A sequence including back-to-back threes from Irving pushed Dallas back into the lead. The first was an isolation step-back against Dončić, and the second was a transition pull-up after breaking up an entry pass for a steal. While the Mavericks led 14-13 with 6:51 left in the opening period, they never led again.
As the Lakers ' lead creator, Dončić stayed on the floor to close the first quarter. He regained Los Angeles's lead with a deep three, then found teammates for two consecutive clean looks from beyond the arc — first to Reaves and another for Hachimura. The Lakers ultimately were up 28-20 at the end of the first quarter, while Irving scored 16 of Dallas’ 20 points.
“He was great on both ends. He was aggressive and got good looks,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said of Irving. “He probably thought he had some good looks and layups that didn’t follow form, but I thought he was great. He was able to play off his teammates’ shots, and it was good, really good.”
The Lakers created a sizeable lead before the half was reached. After Dončić grabbed a defensive rebound and connected with Jarred Vanderbilt for a finish at the rim, the Lakers went up 55-39 with under four minutes to play in the second period. A 16-point deficit ended up being the most significant the Mavericks would face in this game, but they couldn’t quite rally back before it ended.
Christie provided a necessary stretch to bring the Mavericks within single figures before halftime. Dallas went from being down 59-45 with 1:02 left before the break to entering the locker room at the half down by eight points, with Christie sinking a pair of threes while the defense secured a few stops.
“I thought we did a great job with the emotion of the game and understanding what our gameplan was,” Kidd said. “Our job was to try to find a way to win. We put ourselves in the position and came up short. The guys fought, we were down 16 and didn’t let go of the rope. We kept fighting and found a way into this game. We could win either way, but they were the better team tonight.”
The underlying attention placed on Dončić facing his former team could be ignored, especially with the Crypto.com Arena crowd chanting “Thank you, Nico!” at various moments of the game. It was a stark contrast from the Mavericks’ side of the trade, where four fans were removed from a game earlier in February after chanting “Fire Nico!” or holding signs that conveyed the same message.
The Mavericks’ best effort came in the third quarter, outscoring the Lakers by a 26-19 margin. During this frame, Los Angeles shot just 6 of 19 (31.6%) total and 2 of 12 (16.7%) from the three-point range. Both teams traded threes early in the quarter, but after Dončić scored on a transition finish after a steal from Reaves, the Mavericks responded with a quick 5-0 run, including a Thompson three. Both teams traded brief runs, but Dallas never managed to tie until later.
Danté Exum scored five consecutive points, including a three-pointer and a mid-range jumper, to reduce the Lakers’ edge to 78-77 with 1:33 left to play. It was another strong close to a quarter for Dallas to reduce the deficit and strengthen the outlook. It was a hard-fought game without either team creating separation early in the fourth quarter, but Los Angeles later pulled away late.
With the Mavericks tightening up defensively, Dallas rallied to tie the game at 91-91 on a Naji Marshall three-pointer with 6:27 remaining. However, the Lakers outscored the Mavericks 16-8 for the remainder of the game. This stretch included Dončić making timely plays early, including a slow-step finish, then finding James for an emphatic dunk. Irving did his best to fire back with a three, but the Lakers made no shortage of timely plays down the stretch.
“Our guys’ defense that last five-and-a-half minutes to hold them to eight points, our guys were just scrambling everywhere, and Bron was sort of at the head of that,” Redick said. “We made a little adjustment in that timeout with Luka’s coverage just put him in a drop. Just a little curveball, and I thought we did a good job with that. We don’t win the game if Bron doesn’t take over, and we don’t win the game if Doe (Dorian Finney-Smith) doesn’t make three massive plays.”
There was a clear focus from the Mavericks to double-team Dončić and not allow him to get on a roll as a scorer. However, despite this emphasis, the Slovenian superstar frequently accepted the coverages of his opponent and generated clean shots for teammates, along with finishes in the paint. Los Angeles took advantage by aggressively crashing the offensive glass using its size on the wing, with Dorian Finney-Smith and James each finishing putbacks.
“I thought he picked his spots, he was able to find his teammates, he was Luka,” Kidd said. “He drove it, he made plays, and then also finished. He probably had some looks that normally go down for him. But he fills up the stat sheet like no other player. He found his teammates, and his teammates delivered tonight.”
Hachimura also flushed home a dunk after Finney-Smith stole it, putting the Lakers up by six with under three minutes to play. Irving did get to the rim for a finish of his own, but James cleaned up a miss from mid-range by Dončić for his putback dunk.
“Again, another one that doesn’t show up on box scores, but Luka drives against the switch, [Finney-Smith] sets the Gortat screen, and Luka gets the layup,” Redick detailed. “He finally gets an actual dunk on the tip dunk and not just touching the rim while he puts the ball through, and then the back tap steal on Kyrie [Irving] that led to a Rui [Hachimura] basket. I just thought he led the charge down the stretch with just making winning basketball plays.”
The Mavericks had to score but missed a series of threes. With Hachimura splitting free throws with 1:30 left, Los Angeles was up by seven. Irving missed again from deep, then James found Hachimura for a game-clinching layup — putting the Lakers in front 103-96 with just over a minute still to play.
“ Man, it was just, a lot of our effort was there,” Irving said. “It was just our body positioning, and they were taking advantage of just where we were spaced out on the floor defensively. They got a few fast break layups. Bron (LeBron James) was creating space in that dunker, and then down the stretch, they made the effort plays that were necessary to get the win, which created that separation point.”
With the Mavericks trying to neutralize Dončić, James took it upon himself to dominate offensively. He scored 16 points in the fourth quarter, adding 5 rebounds and 2 assists. Los Angeles made a mix of crafty plays in the paint, with James or Dončić finding cutters for easy finishes or their teammates using positioning like a Gortat screen to create an advantage on their drives. The Lakers felt that after locking in on their organization offensively, they turned the corner to close it out.
“It’ll happen. It was early in the process, so it will happen,” James said. “The trade happened and we had two games before a break, then we got a week off, so that doesn’t help the process of us building that camaraderie and doing the things that we want to do offensively. So, it will come. In every game, in every film session, in every practice shootaround, we’ll get an opportunity to get better and better. I thought in the last stretch, when the game was tied, it showed where we could go up. So we have to just build off of that.”
Dončić was impressed by how James closed the game, crediting head coach JJ Redick for the team taking advantage of a timeout to get back on track.
“JJ [Redick] said in the timeout, ‘Let's get organized,’ and once we get organized in offense, we have a lot of weapons,” Dončić said. “So that was really big, and [LeBron]'s doing that at 40 years old, which is insane. [For him] to take over in the fourth quarter was unbelievable to watch.”
Redick detailed how the Lakers weren’t spacing the floor as well as the coaching staff would like and weren’t hunting the proper matchups. With the late timeout, Los Angeles rectified these issues by adequately filling lanes instead of overly attacking out of empty side actions.
“I thought we finally got organized. [We] didn’t do a good job of getting to our spacing throughout the game,” Redick explained. [We] finally got three people down the floor and the court was filled. [We] kept going to empty sides stuff. [It] wasn’t working. [We] just got space. We got to our proper matchups and stuff. We created good offense. [There were] different points in the game when we did that, and we didn’t. We didn’t get good offense.”
Redick credited James with stepping up and doing what a great player does when it’s time to drop the hammer without complicating the situation.
“I think overall, again, Bron (LeBron James) just kind of took over the game,” Redick emphasized. “I felt like he was making a lot of plays with the ball and made some plays that don’t show up on the box score.”
The Mavericks came away winless on their two-game West Coast road trip and will host the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night at the American Airlines Center. The next time they compete against Dončić will be at home on April 9.
“It was strange, but he’s a competitive guy, and so are we, so it was fun to battle,” Thompson said of facing Dončić. “I know we’ll see him at least one more time, maybe twice, but it was strange at first. But, once you run up the court a couple of times, it’s just another basketball game.”
Observers will forever be left wondering what this Mavericks team could have achieved had they kept Dončić and patiently waited for the group to recover. Now, the team is waiting for injury recoveries but will have to adjust to playing two bigs together with Davis at the four with limited time to do so before the postseason begins, which will likely require competing in the play-in tournament.
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