The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Lakers 115-110. Despite LeBron James sitting out with an ankle injury and Anthony Davis playing limited minutes returning from a two month absence due to a calf strain, the game still had an almost playoff atmosphere. Sometimes all it takes is being the late night national TV game to do that.
Luka Doncic led all scorers with 30 points, and almost had a triple-double, adding nine rebounds and eight assists. Kentavius Caldwell-Pope led the Lakers in scoring, putting up 29 points on 6-of-12 shooting from deep.
The Mavericks started off slow, which lately isn’t so much a habit as it is a standard operating procedure.