Luka Doncic faced the Mavericks again Friday night, but the game lacked the drama of last season’s matchup, writes Dan Woike of The Athletic. Nearly 10 months have passed for Doncic to process the unexpected trade to the Lakers, and the man who made it, Dallas general manager Nico Harrison, has already been fired. So with the emotional stakes lowered, Doncic concentrated on business and delivered 35 points, five rebounds and 11 assists in L.A.’s 129-119 victory.
“I would say it’s a little bit easier now,” Doncic said. “But like I said, games against Dallas always have some special meaning to me. I still have a lot of friends there. It’s always special. It’ll always be special for me.”
The spotlight also belonged to Austin Reaves, who has become one of the NBA’s best offensive players in the midst of a contract year. He led all scorers with 38 points, and Woike suggests he might be headed for his first All-Star appearance.
“I think he’s been one of the best basketball players in this league, just the way he scores, he makes a place for others in the game,” Doncic said before taking a playful jab at his teammate. “It’s very good. I’m just happy he’s on my team. And that’s probably the last compliment I ever give him.”
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
- The Lakers are listing LeBron James as questionable for Sunday’s game with New Orleans due to left foot injury management, relays Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link). It’s the first night of a back-to-back for L.A., which hosts Phoenix on Monday. Marcus Smart, who didn’t play Friday due to back spasms, is doubtful.
- Kings guard Dennis Schröder underwent an MRI that showed he has a mild hip flexor strain, tweets James Ham of The Kings Beat. Schröder, who recently lost his starting job, is considered day-to-day and is questionable for Sunday’s game with Memphis.
- The Warriors have the league’s worst offensive rating without Stephen Curry, who will miss at least a week with a right quad contusion. Anthony Slater of the Athletic shares comments from coach Steve Kerr about the challenges of scoring without his star guard.
- Will Richard‘s low turnover rate has helped him claim a spot in the Warriors‘ starting and closing lineups, notes Scott Ostler of The San Francisco Chronicle. The 56th pick in this year’s draft has quickly earned a major rotation role as well as his coach’s confidence. “You can see it,” Kerr said, “he’s just in the right spot, the right time. He has a lot of confidence, he’s not afraid to let it fly. Never turns it over, just connects the game, he makes the game easier for everyone else. He’s kind of wise beyond his years. I’ve got 100% trust in him.”
Glad the warriors won today Tuesday is not looking good without Curry playing.
50+ point blowout incoming vs OKC. Their bigs are going to eat Kerr’s dumbass rotations for lunch. TJD and Post will get a combined 15 mins, max. Moody, Richard and GP2 will play forward position when they are strict SGs. We losing that game, for sure.
That said, Jimmy Buckets is absolutely destroying everyone right now. We have prime Jimmy and the entire roster aside from Steph stinks. How is Buddy Hield still even on this team? He is so beyond washed its beyond comprehension. He should announce his retirement. He is literally the worst +/- in the league. He is 33, he is old too. He’s cooked in this league
Trigger warning: horrible game log
link to basketball-reference.com
The next 5 games aren’t looking good without Curry playing. Other coaches would adjust to their personnel without their best player, especially with as much time at home between games as they’ve had.
But as we saw last night, Kerr runs the same Steph offense without Steph, shooting over half of their FGAs from three but making just 25.5% of them, and only winning because the Pelicans are simply a terrible team.
11-15 coming up…
I can not figure out why Post is not playing more when his defense is getting better. Buddy Heild looks lost out there
I agree – Kerr giving Post less than 17 minutes vs a bad team means he’s not gaining enough experience.
That is Warriors way, not to develop their young draftees. They only like to develop journeymen also they can get paid elsewhere. Who was our last young player that we developed? Rollins wouldnt be the player today if he was with Warriors.
Buddy is 33 years old – his time in this league is done. He does absolutely nothing. He is cooked. GP2 is kinda cooked too, he can only play well vs the worst team in the league.
Honestly you don’t think Buddy for Brook Lopez is something they should look into. Especially with Al getting hurt.
They should look into it but they like Buddy’s chemistry with the team.
Buddy is 33 and completely cooked in this league. He lost a step and cant shoot at all.
“The Warriors have the league’s worst offensive rating without Stephen Curry”
It is literally Steve Kerr’s job to build every type of offense with 1 player missing. What does dummy do? Half days and no practices scheduled at all. His job. He does not do any part of it.
He only builds offense for Curry and does jack and ish the rest of the time. Steve Kerr might be the laziest coach in histoy. Dude does not do even one aspect of his job well, or even at all. If you defend him, you are defending pure incompetence. After it came out that Kerr told Poole to say that to Draymond, he should have been fired on the spot. He caused all of this, for no damn reason. And then he has the audacity to say he got the most enjoyment out of coaching during the 15-50 season, because no pressure. Pathetic. A loser who is a net negative on every team he is on. A generational rider. Retire now, you useless idiot. Sick of seeing Kerr think all these strict SGs are stretch bigs, when they absolutely are not. Just play your best 5 guys. Kuminga is better than GP2, but GP2 gets more playing time because why? He stunk every game except vs the worst team in the league, whoop dee doo…
Will Richard should only play at SG, but Kerr should develop him at the point too. He won’t. He will play him at the 3 and 4 because Kerr hates basketball, is owned by the mob, and is going out of his way to find ways to lose on purpose, likely due to big gambling making him.
Kerr makes me mad at him, even in wins. Always has. It’s impressive. Worst in-game coach with a ring in league history. Jimmy and Curry are on fire and you lose 3 in a row? Who else can even do that? This game vs the worst game in the league should have been an easy blowout even without Curry, and it wasn’t. Every other coach who has won a ring absolutely destroys Kerr at every aspect of the coaching job. He can’t even be trusted to develop players. I totally understand why MJ punched him.
tl;dr – Steve Kerr is the worst coach who ever won a ring in this league and literally anyone could have done a better job with the talent and resources he got gifted.
@ Davey….please stick around when this gets even worse, like post Steph.
What was that altercation bet. that pelicans rookie & jimmy butler all about?
Just talking smack with a bunch of guys all around, so nothing could possibly happen. Boldness in a crowd.
Just jawing back-and-forth..,
“what are you saying?
“What are you gonna do about it?
“what you say old man?
“say it again..,
“you aint s-yit.., etc. etc.”
“And that’s probably the last compliment I ever give him.” I can’t help but to smile a bit when I see or read about Luka and Reaves going back and forth.
Luka was a great teammate and his teammates loved him in Dallas. Reaves is very much loved by his teammates for years now. Every time he does something great all his teammates rush him to celebrate him.
The chemistry on the Lakers is amazing. Luka, and especially Reaves are the chemistry glue on that team. I’m actually going to give Reaves even more credit for that chemistry glue.
I say this as someone who lives in SoCal, but was a Mavs fan the last several years cause I was a Luka fan. Now I’m cheering the Lakers on!
Lakers schedule has been one of lightest. They have beaten teams they should beat. Mostly without Bron. So thats a good sign. Clippers are banged up. Mavs are banged up. Grizzlies are mixed up.
Lakers have taken advantage of this. Gotta give them credit for that. To finish top 4 in West. Would be a major accomplishment imo. Long way to go still.
Lakeshow got roasted by Gillespie and Brooks last night. Fun to watch. LA defense made those two look like all stars. Luka and Reeves are plus plus offensive talents but below average defenders and cannot stop good players on the perimeter and should not be on the floor at the same time in crunch time. They prob need to move Reeves for a plus D SG. See vintage Klay paired with Steph.