Nico Harrison and the Dallas Mavericks shocked the world when they made the trade that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers at the deadline. Sure, Dallas got back Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a first-round pick, but they lost Doncic. The guy who Mavs fans had come to love. The guy who Dirk Nowitzki recognized as next-up. The guy who took them to the NBA Finals less than a year prior.
It was a stunning move, and it was made even more spicy by the fact that the two sides still had two regular-season games left to play against one another. Tuesday night marked the first of the two, as Kyrie Irving and the Mavs were in LA to see Doncic and the Lakers.
And it only took six minutes for Doncic to make Harrison regret the deal.
Luka Doncic was dominant from the jump in Lakers vs. Mavericks
In the first six minutes of the first quarter, Doncic went absolutely ballistic. The Mavs sent extra pressure, including Christie, at him, but it didn’t matter. He was lighting them up.
Doncic recorded seven points, four rebounds, two assists, one steal, and one block in the first six minutes of the game. Three of the points were wiped away during the timeout at the 5:47 mark because he stepped out of bounds, or else he would have had 10. Still, immediately after, he notched another assist and another rebound.
Irving went on an impressive scoring run to start the game, too, but all eyes were on Doncic. It looked like he was making it his personal mission to destroy the Mavericks.
The torture didn’t stop there, either. Every chance he got, Doncic was talking smack. Whether it was directed at the Mavs bench, his former teammates, or the arena in general, he knew what he was doing, and he was loving every second of it.
At just 25 years old, Doncic is one of the best young stars in the NBA. Seeing him get traded was so shocking that it broke through the sports world. Everyone knew about it.
Now, he’s on one of the biggest teams in the world of sports, and he wasted no time letting the Mavs know they messed up by letting him go.
Doncic was as shocked as anybody when the news of the trade hit the Twitter timeline, and there was no way he was going to let an opportunity to dunk on Dallas slip by him.