4 hours ago 10

Mavericks-Lakers takeaways: Lakers win but still have work to do

NBA insiders

Feb 26, 2025, 12:21 AM ET

The NBA world was turned upside down Feb. 2 when the Dallas Mavericks traded five-time All-Star Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a future pick.

The deal sent shockwaves through the league leading to on-going discourse about the repercussions of the deal in Dallas and what the future now holds for the Lakers, one of the most decorated franchises in the league history. The ire from Mavericks fans erupted after the franchise questioned the conditioning and commitment of their former superstar on his way to Los Angeles and Davis picked up another injury midway through his first game in Dallas that has kept him out since.

The Lakers beat the Mavericks on Tuesday, 107-99, in the teams' first game since the trade that sent Luka to Los Angeles. Doncic recorded a triple-double in the win as the Los Angeles offense was just too much to keep up down the stretch.

Here are the key takeaways from the high-profile matchup.

Takeaways

This was an extremely fun matchup, even if you set aside the greatly anticipation of the "Luka Revenge Game."

The Mavs showed a ton of pride defensively, and Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson flashed brilliance offensively, to give Dallas a chance late. But the Lakers sat down and defended down the stretch, as LeBron put his foot on the pedal on both ends when it counted to close things out.

The massive media glare will always be there when it comes to Los Angeles; particularly when it features two of the NBA's best minds, LeBron and Luka. But it should be fascinating to see what a full-strength Dallas squad with Anthony Davis looks like in the playoffs and beyond, too. -- Chris Herring

It wasn't pretty, or easy, but the Lakers eventually came away with a 107-99 victory over the Mavericks in the first Luka Doncic Bowl. It was a game that both showed the promise and question marks around the new-look Lakers, and some signs of what Dallas could eventually look like if the Mavericks can ever get healthy.

For Los Angeles, the combination of Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves is going to be extraordinarily tough for opposing defenses to handle. Few teams have three defenders good enough to match up with the three primary Laker ball handlers -- and having a good defender on them doesn't guarantee they'll be able to slow them down.

Questions remain for the Lakers, however. Although Dallas shot pretty well from 3-point range in this game, ending up 17-for-44, the Mavericks generated one wide open look after another, and a better shooting opponent will have more success with that many clean attempts from deep. During the game, Lakers coach J.J. Redick complained about his team's work on the defensive glass -- and understandably so, given the extremely short-handed Mavericks had 14 offensive rebounds with Anthony Davis, Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively all watching in street clothes.

For Dallas, having a big, physical roster around the brilliant individual talents of Kyrie Irving is a formula that, if the Mavericks can get healthy, might have them able to go toe-to-toe with anyone this side of the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference. But the amount of injuries across the Dallas roster at the moment -- plus the lingering concern about Irving's back issues -- could have the Mavericks in a perilous position moving forward.

The best thing working in the Mavericks' favor on that front is the Suns -- now losers of 10 of their last 13 games -- continued backslide. That, coupled with Victor Wembanyama going down for the season, essentially has locked in the 10 playoff and play-in teams out West.

The play-in, though, is not where Dallas hoped to be when it chose to move on from Doncic. And the play-in is not where the Lakers are going to be after yet another win has improved them to 15-4 in their last 19 games, and has them thinking about not only home court advantage in the first round, but potentially -- incredibly -- finishing as high as second out West. -- Tim Bontemps

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