LA, Mavs Win First Game After Blockbuster Trade
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 07 Feb 2025
Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks played their respective first official game after figuring in a recent mid season blockbuster trade and both won against notable opponents.
LAL hosted Golden State Warriors, a former recent NBA winner and held off a late Warriors rally to score a 120-112 victory despite Luka Doncic not suiting up for a Lakers debut.
The Mavericks meanwhile played Boston on the road and despite new acquisition Anthony Davis also not playing, fellow ex Laker Max Christie immediately made a big contribution in Dallas's 127-120 win over the defending champions Celtics at the TD Garden.
With Lebron James posted a game high 42 points and 17 rebounds powering the attack, LA dominated the first two quarters, posting a 69-49 lead at the intermission.
The Lakers then thwarted attempts by Golden State to turn the game around in the last two quarters mainly through James, with scoring support from Austin Reeves (25), Gabe Vincent (15) and Riu Hachimura (11). Jaxson Hayes and Jarred Vanderbilt somehow also filled up the absence of Anthony Davis with Hayes scoring 11 points and Vanderbilt hauling down 14 rebounds.
Stephen Curry who scored team high 37 points in 37 minutes on the floor, tried to rally the Warriors with firepower support from Buddy Heild (15), Moses Moody (14), Pat Spencer (13) and Draemon Green (12). But James and the Lakers held firmly on the lead till the final buzzer.
The win kept the Lakers on the race for the top four while the loss had the Warriors hoping still for a play-in spot at 11th place in the West.
Meanwhile, Dallas rode high on the combined 86 points output of Klay Thompson (25), Spencer Dinwiddle (22), Naij Marshall (20) and Kyrie Irving (19) with no little help from ex Lakers Christie who contributed 15 points to offset Boston's usual balance scoring and vault the Mavs to win in Celtics homecourt
Jalen Brown led the Celtics with 25 points. Payton Pritchard had 21 followed by Jayson Tatum and Kristaps Porzingis with 17 markers each while Derrick White put in 13. But Al Horford who had a high scoring game just a night before only had 3 points and just 5 boards.
With the victory, Dallas at 25-25 keeps alive its chances to at least make the final 8 in the West while the defeat has Boston at 36-16, 5.5 games behind the leading Cleveland Cavaliers (41-10) in the East
Fans are eagerly awaiting Doncic to play his first with the Lakers and Davis, his first with the Mavs.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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