Tuesday night was a highly-anticipated matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks at Crypto.com Arena with Luka Doncic taking on his former team for the first time.
Doncic didn’t shoot the ball well but still recorded a triple-double, and LeBron James came up big down the stretch to lead the Lakers to a win.
James can relate to Doncic having played his former teams before. Even though he was never traded, he knows how it felt to go back to Cleveland or Miami and play against his former team for the first time. With that being the case, James feels Doncic handled the emotions of the night well.
“As well as you can,” James said. “Obviously it’s a lot of emotions that goes in when you give so much to a franchise and you sacrifice for a franchise and you have that type of love and respect for the franchise throughout all the journeys, into the finals and all that stuff. He’s grown from being an 18, 19-year-old kid to now a 25-year-old man with a family and all that stuff. So you kind of grow into a family with the franchise.
“When you move on or they move on from you, it’s very emotional obviously, very taxing. It’s probably a lot of things that were going on in his head that probably didn’t even involve the game itself. With that said, I thought he handled it tremendously.”
James also revealed that the Lakers had a little extra motivation to get the win for Doncic.
“Obviously we understood as his teammates that we wanted to try to get this win for him,” LeBron added. “Obviously we know what transpired not too long ago, so as his teammates we wanted to just try to back him in any way, shape or form. On the court, off the court, whatever. I’m happy that along with my teammates, I was able to make a couple plays down the stretch to get him this win.
“He probably won’t say it, but I think it means something to him, for sure, any time you face your former team and he spent seven years with them I believe, so it’s tough.”
James, Doncic and the Lakers are playing at a high level right now, and beating the Mavericks will only help them continue building chemistry.
Luka Doncic happy to get Mavericks game over with
Luka Doncic was naturally feeling a lot of emotions when playing against the Mavericks for the first time, and with that, he was just happy to get the game over with and come away with a win.
“I mean, the closure is going to take a while, I think,” he said. “It’s not ideal. But I say I’m glad this game is over. It was a lot of emotions, but we go little by little. Every day is better.”
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive coverage from events, participate in live shows, and more!
