Playing for the first time since suffering a left calf strain on Christmas Day, Luka Doncic made his Lakers debut on Monday, helping to guide the team to a comfortable 132-113 victory over Utah. It wasn’t the best game of Doncic’s career – he had just 14 points on 5-of-14 shooting in 24 minutes – but he told reporters after the victory that it was a “special” one, per Jovan Buha of The Athletic.
“The way they received me, everybody, it was amazing to see,” Doncic said. “I was a little bit nervous before. I don’t remember the last time I was nervous before the game. But once I stepped on the court, it was fun. And just being out there again felt amazing.”
As Buha and Dave McMenamin of ESPN write, the Lakers went out of their way to make their newest addition comfortable in his debut. Every fan in attendance received a Doncic t-shirt jersey, the Lakers played Serbian music during pregame warmups (a staple during Doncic’s days in Dallas), and he was the last Lakers starter introduced, temporarily taking the spot typically reserved for LeBron James.
In a pregame huddle captured on ESPN’s broadcast, James told Doncic, “Luka, be your f—ing self. Don’t fit in, fit the f— out. Be yourself.” Doncic said it felt “amazing” to hear that and added that the speech gave him “chills.”
“I didn’t play in a long time, first of all,” Doncic said. “It’s a new team. New everything. But like the way they helped me, teammates, (general manager) Rob (Pelinka), (owner) Jeanie (Buss), it was just a lot of support for me. You could see when I came to the arena, I saw all the Luka jerseys. It was just a surreal feeling.”
The Lakers’ victory, their sixth in a row and 10th in 11 games, moved them into fourth place in the Western Conference standings.
Meanwhile, in Dallas, the Mavericks lost for the 15th time in their last 23 games and are now clinging to a play-in spot, just one game ahead of the 11th-seeded Suns. As Tim MacMahon of ESPN details, multiple Mavericks fans – upset about the trade that sent Doncic to Los Angeles in a package headlined by Anthony Davis – were ejected in the second half of a one-point overtime loss to Sacramento and team governor Patrick Dumont was loudly booed by fans.
[RELATED: Anthony Davis Expected To Miss Multiple Weeks]
At one point in the game, former Mavs majority owner and current minority stakeholder Mark Cuban yelled at two fans to “shut the f— up and sit the f— down,” MacMahon reports. Cuban told ESPN the fans were chanting “fire Nico” (ie. general manager Nico Harrison) while the Mavs were shooting free throws and again during a critical late-game possession. They were later ejected.
Head coach Jason Kidd didn’t speak to reporters after Dallas’ loss, a violation of NBA rules.
“I mean, yeah. I saw,” Doncic said on Monday when asked about the reaction in Dallas to the trade that ended his Mavs tenure. “Obviously, I saw the fans. Obviously, I really appreciate it. I’ve been there seven years — almost seven years — and it was amazing to experience those fans — the love for me. I’ll always appreciate that. But now I think we should focus on the next step. And the way Lakers fans received me here was amazing.”
The Jazz have 2 bigs which should of caused the Lakers a headache…
Instead the Lakers small ball dominated… Vando is undefeated this season, he and Hayes are a solid front court defence…
The script has been completely flipped on Luka lol. He’s now in great shape, a media dawling
Probably because everyone who saw him could immediatley tell that Nico and Dumont were full of crap about him being out of shape. He wasn’t in perfect shape (which, duh, nobody is after a month and a half absence), but there’s no damn way he was 270 lbs the way they were claiming.
To be honest, Luka does look pretty fat. I didnt watch the game so I cant give you an updated take, but lately his face was really looking like a cookie
The yellow/gold jerseys def aren’t slimming either lol
Having watched the game, he doesn’t look like his 230 lbs listed weight, but he absolutely doesn’t look like he’s 270. 250, I’ll give you. That’s still not great. But 270 was always nonsense. He’d look like fat-suit Harden but worse at that point. Even just look at the photos of the game. He looks like himself after an injury layoff. A bit heavier, still getting his legs under him, but not like he went on a six-week bender.
How heartwarming.
Only thing that is sure is Luka will not be reaching free agency in 2026 he will extend for at least two years this summer
To be frank every team counting on free agency in 2026 and 2027 is gonna be severely disappointed in who’s actually available when the time comes!
Nobody goes to free agency anymore bc they can take the money on bird rights and ask for a trade later ! Paul George is the biggest name to reach free agency since the wild 2019 class and hc wouldn’t have if clippers maxed him ! Only old slightly past their prime stars will reach free agency
But isnt the whole Lakers ordeal that they will get players in Free Agency to pair up with Luka since they dont have assets anymore?
Well the Williams trade falling through helped them there ! By 2026 they will have half their traceable first back ! Ausitn reeves will be signed and tradable ,
They always seem to be more than alright even with shaky ownership and management!
Really this is more for clippers and heat who seem to be counting on landing two max free agents in 2026!
By the time it comes around there won’t be a single free agent either team will want to give one max contract to let alone two !
If they want stars they need assets not cap space ! Heat have then clippers don’t
Shoutout to Jordan Goodwin for playing his heart out in the past two games. Suns did him dirty last year (was a solid bench player and the Suns had a 13-10 record in his games, then he had two subpar games back-to-back and they immediately demoted him from the rotation and flipped between playing him five minutes and DNPs), and he got hurt with the Grizz (not that they were competitive at that point in the year), but he deserved a chance to ball out again. Glad the Lakers are giving him a shot.
The Hornets should receive a Lakers pick for this crap. This is usual what happens
Luka trade is The Worst in the history of sports
Brooklyn trading for PP, LilKG and someone else. Boston traded to Brooklyn
Pippen draft rights for Olden Polynice draft rights
Bill Russell’s draft rights traded from Atlanta to Boston
Yes the Luka trade
D Wilkins from Atlanta to the Clippers
Pau Gasol traded from Memphis to Lakers
Anyone else have anymore basketball ones ? These are off the top of my head