The Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night in a highly-anticipated matchup with Luka Doncic taking on his former team for the first time.
Max Christie also made his return to L.A. while Anthony Davis was out due to an abdominal injury. It was Doncic’s night though as he clearly was motivated facing the Mavericks, leading the Lakers to a 107-99 victory.
The Lakers were clearly playing with a little extra juice early as they got off to a quick start. Doncic missed his first shot but then scored an easy layup to get the crowd going. He appeared to get fouled on the next possession but nothing was called, so he picked up a technical foul in frustration.
Kyrie Irving responded with 10 quick points for the Mavericks though to give them their first lead at 14-13. From there, Doncic drilled back-to-back triples and started yelling at the Dallas bench. The new Lakers star filled up the statsheet in his first quarter against his former team with nine points, seven rebounds and four assists, giving L.A. a 28-20 lead.
Austin Reaves and Dalton Knecht got going offensively to start the second as the Lakers extended their lead to double digits. When Doncic returned, he continued controlling the game as both a passer and scorer to continue growing the lead.
Christie heated up to end the half with back-to-back triples though, so the Lakers’ lead was cut to 59-51 going into the locker room.
Dallas’ push continued into the third quarter as Irving, Klay Thompson and Spencer Dinwiddie all connected from deep to get the deficit down to three.
The Lakers couldn’t get anything going offensively for pretty much the entire third quarter, scoring just 19 points. They were able to maintain a slim 78-77 lead going into the final quarter though.
After a pretty quiet first three quarters by his standards, LeBron James hit a fadeaway midrange jumper to begin the fourth. He then had two more buckets and an assist, although Thompson responded with back-to-back triples. He then hit another one and all of a sudden the game was tied at 88.
Doncic found James for a triple of his own to give the former a triple-double. LeBron continued his hot stretch from there with a dunk to put the Lakers up 96-91 with a few minutes to play.
It was all James from there as he closed the game out with ease, scoring 16 points in the fourth quarter alone. Meanwhile, Doncic finished with 19 points, 15 rebounds, 11 assists, three steals and two blocks
What’s next for the Lakers
Things don’t get any easier for the Lakers from here as they have a tough back-to-back at home on Thursday and Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves and L.A. Clippers.
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