Dallas Basketball

Mavs Doncic and Curry Take Down Lakers in First NBA Bubble Scrimmage

Luka Doncic and Seth Curry put in a lot of work in a short amount of time, as the Dallas Mavericks took down LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Lakers in their first NBA Bubble' scrimmage, 108-104.

Dalton Trigg

Mavs Doncic and Curry Take Down Lakers in First NBA Bubble Scrimmage
Mavs Doncic and Curry Take Down Lakers in First NBA Bubble Scrimmage /

The Dallas Mavericks played the Los Angeles Lakers in a scrimmage on Thursday night, in what was both teams' first competitive action against another team since the NBA suspended its season in March. Although this was just considered a "warmup" game, the stars did not disappoint in their limited minutes, as the Mavs went on to beat the Lakers, 108-104.

"I thought overall there were a lot of good things," said head coach Rick Carlisle afterward. "A lot of turnovers, and we fouled a lot (though). Those two areas we will look to improve going into the next game against Indiana."

In just 16 minutes, second-year superstar Luka Doncic picked up right where he left off before the long layoff, putting in 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting with six assists and five rebounds. He left with a limp but seems to be fine. 

And no, it didn't take Doncic long at all to break out his go-to step-back three either.

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Kristaps Porzingis, despite having foul trouble throughout the first half, looked great as well, scoring 8 points on 3-of-6 from the field to go with two rebounds, one assist and one block in 15 minutes of action. Like Doncic, it didn't take Porzingis long to have a signature moment, as he finished a lob from Doncic with a strong dunk, plus the foul.

Although the Mavs' two superstars looked to be in mid-season form already, the biggest star for Dallas on this night was Seth Curry, who torched the Lakers' defense with 23 points on a perfect 8-for-8 shooting night (6-for-6 from deep) in just 15 minutes. For whatever reasons, Curry explodes when he plays on a neutral court. When the Mavs played the Detroit Pistons in Mexico City earlier this season, Curry scored 30 points on 11-of-15 shooting. If that trend can continue when the real games start next week, the Mavs are going to make a lot of noise heading into the postseason.

"I was getting good shots," said Curry after his big night. "Nothing too crazy. Guys were finding me, setting good screens. The background is a good sight line from pretty much every angle, and it's not too deep of a depth perception, so that felt good."

For the Lakers, their two superstars didn't seem to have a lot of rust on them, either. LeBron James put in 12 points, five assists and three rebounds in 14 minutes, while Anthony Davis scored 12 points of his own in 15 minutes to go with two steals.

Next, the Mavs will play the Indiana Pacers on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. on NBA TV (and Mavs.com), then they'll finish up this scrimmage schedule on Tuesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers at 7:30 p.m. on FSSW.

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Dalton Trigg
DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.

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