The Los Angeles Lakers secured their sixth consecutive victory and finished the NBA Cup group stage with a perfect 4-0 record after defeating the Dallas Mavericks 129-119. This marked Anthony Davis’s first game in Los Angeles since the famous trade in February. For Luka Doncic, who finished the game with 35 points and 11 assists, it was his third game against his former team and also his third victory, once again underscoring the grave error the Mavericks made in trading him, a mistake that will surely be marked in NBA history.
LeBron Takes a Side Step for His Star Teammates
The night was supposed to be a narrative about Luka Doncic or the returning Anthony Davis, but it was Austin Reaves who stole the spotlight, finishing with a game-high 38 points and adding eight rebounds.
Reaves is undoubtedly an early season candidate for the Most Improved Player award and is heading toward his first All-Star selection. While he has improved his averages in points, rebounds, and assists every year, this season, playing alongside Doncic, he has proven to be a reliable second option, even ahead of LeBron James.
To put the Lakers’ scoring dominance into context, with Doncic (35 points) and Reaves (38) serving as the team’s top two scorers, they became the fourth pair of Lakers teammates since 2000 to tally 35-plus points each in the same game. More impressively, this was the first time in LeBron James’ 23 years and over 1,500 games in the league that two players on his team scored 35 or more points and he was not one of them.
LeBron finished with 13 points and seven assists but posted a strong plus/minus of +13, proving he is ready to hand the reins over to Doncic and Reaves and embrace the role of the best third option in NBA history. This transition provides an incredible advantage: no active player, perhaps outside of Nikola Jokic, possesses James’ basketball IQ.
He has effectively transformed into a court-side quarterback when off the ball, directing teammates to the best offensive option. Moreover, the constant threat posed by Doncic often forces double-teams, leaving James or Reaves open. The Lakers are rapidly coalescing into an elite team ready to compete with the best in the tough Western Conference.
NBA Cup Lakers Host Spurs as Thunder Remain Dominant
The Lakers’ perfect run in the NBA Cup group stage ensures they will host the quarter-finals at Crypto.com Arena, where they will face the San Antonio Spurs and Victor Wembanyama on December 10th, a highly anticipated matchup.
The other Western Conference quarter-final is set between the Phoenix Suns and the champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder (19-1), who continue their phenomenal run, becoming only the fifth team in history to have just one loss after 20 games. The Lakers have two more home games this week against the Pelicans (Sunday) and the Suns (Monday) before heading East to play the Raptors, Celtics, and Sixers, prior to their NBA Cup quarterfinal against the Spurs.
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