On February 2, the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks rocked the basketball world with a blockbuster trade involving Luka Doncic heading to the Lakers and Anthony Davis heading to the Mavericks. This transaction was arguably the biggest story this season, and possibly the biggest story in quite some time.
What we saw on Saturday night was how good the Lakers can be with their two big superstars in LeBron James and Luka Doncic We all know that James will not be a superstar for much longer. At the age of 40, he probably has a couple of seasons left where he will be playing at an exceptional level of professional basketball. Now, James, who can be put in the conversation of one of the greatest players ever (along with Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), has an exceptional sidekick in Doncic, who is considered one of the best basketball players in the NBA right now (alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic).
When healthy, we can see the magic like we saw on Saturday at Denver’s Ball Arena in a 123-100 Lakers win over the Denver Nuggets. This was only the fourth game Doncic played alongside James as a Laker (so far they are at two wins and two losses). After embarrassing losses to the Utah Jazz and Charlotte Hornets, we finally saw how good this tandem can be. Doncic had 32 points, 10 rebounds for the double-double and was a +20, while James had 25 points. The combination of 57 points provided the Nuggets will significant challenges all night long in front of a nationally televised audience as the game was on ABC.
Going forward, the Lakers are now at 34 wins and 21 losses. Denver dropped to 37 wins and 20 losses. Despite the fact the Nuggets had a nine game-winning streak before Saturday’s loss, it is the Lakers that appear to have all the momentum at the moment.
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