Lakers win in festive debut for Dončić... while the nightmare continues in Dallas

Luka Dončić scored 14 in his debut with Lakers, a placid victory against one of the worst NBA teams.
Text: Javier Escribano
Published 2025-02-11

Luka Dončić has made a good debut with the Los Angeles Lakers. He only played 23 minutes and scored 14 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, which is a modest quantity from the third all-time scorer per game (28.6 in average over 422 regular season games, only behind Jordan and Chamberlain), but he hadn't played in almost two months due to injury.

The rival, Utah Jazz, is at the bottom of the West Conference only winning 12 games and losing 40 so far. It was almost almost an obligation for a rising Lakers team to win tonight. Lakers are now fourth in the West with six straight victories, although it should be noted that they have been relatively easy rivals. They will face Utah again before the All-Star break, and after that the real challenge for Doncic will begin.

Still, there was a festive atmosphere at the Crypto.com Arena, with fans cheering Dončić's name (he was announced last, an honour that usually held LeBron) and even getting free shirts. A drastically different feeling than the one in Texas...

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Dallas Mavericks nightmare gets worse

It almost looks like karma is lashing out at Dallas Mavericks, after getting rid of their star and trading him for Anthony Davis... who got injured after one game and will be out for about a month. In the next first game without Dončić and without Davis, the Mavs lost in the most cruel way possible: at home, 128-129, against Sacramento Kings, after one overtime period.

To add insult to injury, Daniel Gafford got injured after a hit in the knee. Gafford joins the list of injured pivots for Dallas: Davis, Lively, and Powell. All of that, while fans were heard protesting in the stadium: their disenchantment is loud, evident, and understandable.

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