Emotional return for fans of Luka Donnteic and Mavericks in his first match in Dallas since his exchange with the Los Angeles Lakers in February.
Luka Doncic scored 31 of his 45 points in the first half of his highly anticipated Homecoming Dallas while the Los Angeles Visit Lakers locked a place in the playoffs with a 112-97 victory against the Mavericks.
The 46th career match of Donic 40 points Wednesday was completed by eight rebounds and six assists while connecting on 16 on 28 on the ground and seven out of 10 on three points.
LeBron James posted 27 points and seven plates, and Rui Hachimura added 15 points while the Lakers (49-31) strengthened their grip in the West Conference.
Naji Marshall contributed 23 points and eight assists for Dallas, PJ Washington scored 14 and Anthony Davis – in his first match for Dallas against his former team – finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
The result leaves Dallas (38-42) always requiring one more victory to guarantee the final game position in the West.
Dononic, exchanged from Dallas to Los Angeles for Davis as part of a successful agreement on February 2, became emotional during a pre-match video tribute, before receiving deafening applause when his name was called during the departure announcements.
Dononic, which has an average of a deductible record of 28.6 points in 422 games for Dallas, received exciting cheers for each possession or score, in particular early.
His 14 points in the first quarter were offset by five reversals from Los Angeles, while the Mavericks led by Marshall advanced 30-26 at the first break.
Dononic dominated the second period, draining a three-point trio and marking 17 of the 34 points of his team, while Los Angeles took a 60-57 advance at halftime.
James, who had only eight points in the first half when he played the second violin against Dononic, came to life in the third and helped the Lakers cushion ball at 78-65 before Marshall alone sums up the storm for Dallas and wrote the gap at 83-76 with a quarter to play.
Max Christie’s Tip-Dunk was ahead of the MAVS in front of 84-83, but their time to come while James led a response of 9-0 to Los Angeles in 90 seconds, and the Lakers were never threatened at a distance.
The three-point foot step and a strong conduct exploded the margin at 110-94 before the selection of the first All-NBA team five times was replaced by 1:34 to a standing ovation.
The two teams play their home finals in the regular season Friday evening when the Mavericks face Toronto and the Lakers welcome Houston.
