DALLAS \u2014 It would\u2019ve been a safe bet that Luka Don\u010di\u0107 would\u2019ve hit his 1,500th career three-point shot and played his 17,000th career minute in Dallas. Until a year ago, no one could\u2019ve imagined he\u2019d do those things in a Lakers uniform against the Mavericks.<\/p>\n
In his second game ever as an opponent in the American Airlines Center, Don\u010di\u0107 became the youngest player ever to make 1,500 threes, besting Jayson Tatum by 32 days.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t matter. The way things ended in his second trip back as a Lakers player was going to overshadow any accomplishment. Instead of it being about Don\u010di\u0107, it was about the Lakers, sprinting back into a game they nearly coughed up.<\/p>\n
The Lakers came back from down 15 with less than eight minutes to play to beat the Mavericks 116-110, Rui Hachimura, Marcus Smart, LeBron James and Jake LaRavia making as many big plays as Don\u010di\u0107 down the stretch.<\/p>\n
The Lakers have now beaten Dallas in each of the four games the two teams have played since the trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were still emotions, trust me,\u201d Don\u010di\u0107 said. \u201cBut a little bit better, a little bit easier for me. Obviously, like I said before, how the fans accept me here, it\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lakers scored a season-low 14 points in the third quarter, going scoreless over a four-minute stretch where they either turned the ball over or missed a layup on nine consecutive offensive possessions. Dallas flipped the game, playing all the energy and momentum while the Lakers couldn\u2019t even get the ball to the basket for a shot attempt.<\/p>\n
Their 13-point lead had vanished, and with it, a chance to win.<\/p>\n
But in the fourth quarter, when things were bleakest, the Lakers again found their energy on both ends of the court.<\/p>\n
Don\u010di\u0107 sealed the win with a magical side-stepping layup immediately followed by a drawn charge. He finished with 33 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists \u2014 following JJ Redick\u2019s instructions to trust the pass \u2014 and with it, his teammates, after the Lakers lost to the Clippers.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuka wants to win,\u201d Redick said. \u201cAnd so I\u2019m not surprised that he (responded). A-plus. He played a fantastic game, and he orchestrated things for us early to get us the lead. And then he orchestrated things for us late, and he just continued to make the right play over and over. Had a lot of confidence in his teammates and his teammates responded with some big-time shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four Lakers scored at least seven points in the fourth, led by 11 from LeBron James. Hachimura made back-to-back threes, Smart got a key steal and scored on an and-1 to help kickstart the Lakers\u2019 run back into the game. And Don\u010di\u0107 did the job on both ends of the court, Redick saying that Don\u010di\u0107 got six straight stops on plays where the Mavericks targeted him in the fourth.<\/p>\n
His only hiccup came at halftime, when Don\u010di\u0107 began to walk towards the Mavericks\u2019 locker room before turning around and heading off in the opposite direction towards the Lakers\u2019 locker room.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a special place,\u201d Don\u010di\u0107 said of Dallas. \u201cI\u2019m always going to want to win, no matter what. Every game I want to win, but, obviously, this win is a little different. But again, I want to win every game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crowd still was behind Don\u010di\u0107, cheering for him as he was introduced first with the visiting starters and even chanting MVP at one point in the first half while he shot free throws.<\/p>\n
They were very much still invested in the relationship, even if the Mavericks as an organization want to look ahead.<\/p>\n
Asked pregame if he wishes he could\u2019ve stopped the Feb. 1, 2025, trade that sent Don\u010di\u0107 to the Lakers for the injured Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick, coach Jason Kidd said he was committed to the future instead of reflecting on anniversaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s one year. Next year will be two years. After that, it\u2019ll be three. We\u2019ll just keep counting. Luka\u2019s moved on, and we\u2019ve moved on,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cHe\u2019s playing extremely well. He\u2019s leading the league in scoring. He has his team in the hunt. For that, we wish him the best. That\u2019s the business of basketball; you\u2019ve got to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Don\u010di\u0107, the return to Dallas came with less fanfare than his first game back last season, when the crowd alternated showering him with praise and showering former general manager Nico Harrison with scorn for trading him. Still, Sunday was special.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was happy to be back here. I went to my house. I saw my cars. But, obviously, it\u2019s always going to be emotions. I really appreciate how they cheered for me when I was introduced. It\u2019s always going to be a special place for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s game took place in front of a mostly full crowd, somewhat surprisingly because of a combination of rain, sleet, ice and snow that had flights cancelled and roads in the region mostly empty because of safety concerns.<\/p>\n
ABC\/ESPN\u2019s Lisa Salters, originally slated to work the game as a sideline reporter, didn\u2019t make it to Dallas because of weather-related travel issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was really special,\u201d Don\u010di\u0107 said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to expect before because I know how the city gets when the weather is this bad. But I really appreciate a lot of people showing up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 It would\u2019ve been a safe bet that Luka Don\u010di\u0107 would\u2019ve hit his 1,500th career three-point shot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[760,1055,355,99],"class_list":["post-428789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}