Lakers in a 116-110 victory over Dallas<\/a> on Saturday night was a nice bonus for Doncic, who took another step toward the rest of his career with a visit to his first NBA city that wasn\u2019t nearly as emotional as his return last April.<\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s still emotions, trust me,\u201d the NBA\u2019s scoring leader said after going for 33 points and 11 assists and beating Dallas for the fourth time in four tries. \u201cBut a little bit better, a little bit easier for me. It\u2019s unbelievable. I\u2019ve still got a lot of fans here, players, some other people. I\u2019m happy to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doncic has tried to be clear that he\u2019s moving on after he wept on the LA bench during a video tribute when he was introduced before the game in Dallas last April. Maybe Mavericks fans are getting there as well. <\/p>\n
The game lacked \u201cNico Fired\u201d chants \u2014 the ones fans used briefly after general manager Nico Harrison was let go by Dallas in November following a slow start. The move also came amid lingering resentment for a trade that is now easily viewed as a setback for a franchise that reached the NBA Finals just nine months before a 25-year-old star in his prime was shipped away in the middle of the night. <\/p>\n
The centerpiece for Dallas in the deal was Anthony Davis, the oft-injured big man who has missed more games than he\u2019s played since joining the Mavericks and won\u2019t return from his latest absence \u2014 a hand injury \u2014 until next month.<\/p>\n
When Doncic visited the first time, the Dallas crowd on that night and many others was prone to launching into \u201cFire Nico\u201d chants, which were still happening early this season.<\/p>\n
For the Slovenian star\u2019s second visit, the most noticeable chants were a couple of \u201cM-V-P\u201d renditions when he was shooting free throws (he made 14 of 15).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe significance of this probably will be there for the rest of his career,\u201d Lakers coach JJ Redick said before the game. \u201cThis is where it started for him. It\u2019s where he made his first Finals appearance. It\u2019s where he was drafted. The significance for our team is there, and it\u2019s certainly there for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
LeBron James and Rui Hachimura were the biggest catalysts for the rally from 15 points down in the final 7 minutes. <\/p>\n
James scored 11 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter after at one point having a minus-28 rating with a point total in the single digits. Hachimura had a four-point play and another 3-pointer on consecutive possessions, the latter putting LA up for good.<\/p>\n
Doncic did his share as well. His driving layup gave the Lakers a 116-108 lead with 50 seconds to go, and he turned to his old bench as if to say that was about it. Or maybe not.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard the bench said something about a travel,\u201d said Doncic, who still found time for playful moments during and after the game with his former teammates. \u201cThere was no travel. Two steps. I just looked over there.\u201d<\/p>\n
All the free throws made it a quiet scoring night for Doncic, but the shouts of his name from kids near the court were loud enough. He was a pedestrian 3 of 8 from 3-point range, but the 26-year-old did become the youngest to reach 1,500 long-range buckets. He\u2019s at 1,501.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the biggest thing this year, he\u2019s just more comfortable,\u201d James said. \u201cUnderstanding the system, understanding the city, the city embracing him. Understanding it\u2019s his team, and we\u2019re all rallying around him. Obviously we know it\u2019s emotional, a big game, to come back and play your former team. He showed who he is tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe the next visit \u2014 not long before the end of the regular season in April, when the Lakers likely are on their way to the playoffs and Dallas is likely headed home for the summer \u2014 will be even a little bit easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one year, and next year it\u2019ll be two years and after that it\u2019ll be three and we\u2019ll just keep counting,\u201d Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. \u201cLuka\u2019s moved on. And we\u2019ve moved on.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS (AP) \u2014 Luka Doncic walked toward the wrong locker room at halftime before a quick U-turn by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4643,1770,3267,102,104,103,58346,4280,23008,9922,6393,4646,3080,6539,6538,50576,57554,154,27,1760],"class_list":{"0":"post-137645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-dallas-headlines","13":"tag-dallas-news","14":"tag-j-j-redick","15":"tag-jason-kidd","16":"tag-lebron-james","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","19":"tag-luka-doncic","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-nba-basketball","22":"tag-nico-harrison","23":"tag-rui-hachimura","24":"tag-send-to-apple-news","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-texas","27":"tag-tx-state-wire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}