For ESPN’s second game of the night, the Los Angeles Lakers (3-1) travel to the Lone Star State to duel with 20-year old phenom Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks (3-1) at 9:30 p.m. on Friday at the American Airlines Center.
The Mavs are a perfect .500 at home and have dazzled in this young season and exceeded expectations with Rick Carlisle’s new all-European tandem of Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis. Los Angeles is favored by a point and a half in the latest Lakers vs. Mavericks odds, while the over-under is set at 216.5, according to SportsLine.
It shouldn’t take a basketball connoisseur to envision the duo of new Laker Anthony Davis and LeBron James frolicking in the prosperity of a high winning percentage throughout the young season, because it already looks like they have gotten a bit of a headstart on that. Anthony Davis already set his season-high (soon to be toppled, presumptuously) in points and rebounds, putting up a hefty 40-point, 20 rebound stat line against the Grizzlies on Tuesday night inside the Staples Center.
A dominant display of height, wingspan, and ambidexterity with a flashy handle as a near 7-footer were just uncontainable for the young Grizz and LeBron who, albeit didn’t have his usual 30-point night, just let the 29-year old take center stage.
Tonight, a clash of 3-1 squads will take place in ESPN’s late-night slot and NBA fans will be treated to the battle of the two best stretch bigs in the land, as the synonymously dubbed “Unicorn” Kristaps Porzingis gets a shot to upset the favored Lakers and go toe-to-toe with AD.
On Friday afternoon ahead of tonight’s matchup, current “best player on the planet” (debatable) LeBron James was asked a precarious inquiry that surely made its rounds throughout the interwebs.
“Hey, LeBron, how do you plan to handle the Razzmatazz Hop Skiddily-Doo that Luka Doncic brings to every night?”
And that’s a pretty hard question to come up with an answer with one single pontification.
Doncic’s Razzmatazz, hop skidd- you know the rest, has been so substantial for the Mavericks’ early success. This kid has been playing like a grown man, averaging 25 points a game which is the 11th-highest scoring average in all of basketball so far. With such a complete game, he’s making MVP noise early in this young season and has really opened the eyes of Mavs fans, while confirming the good selection skill of Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who happens to know a thing or two about scouting Euro talent.
The thing about these Mavs – they love fast starts. So much so, that they’ve been flying out of the gates in the four games they’ve played, averaging a league-high 66.2 first-half points per contest. Today, they host a Lakers team who have been a little slower to get rolling thus far averaging 52.2 first-half points.
With all of the factors that the Lakers have against them tonight, they now have one positive – Kule Kuzma is back. A healthy roster and solid rotation for Lakers coach Frank Vogel has the Lakers favored to get their fourth win tonight, but you just cannot be sure about these young Mavs when writing that prediction.
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