Mavs All-Star Weekend: Dereck Lively II Shines, Luka Doncic MVP Odds & Much More

With the first two nights of NBA All-Star Weekend in the books, we take a look back Dallas Mavericks rookie big man Dereck Lively II's impressive Rising Stars Challenge, recap the 3-Point Contest and Slam Dunk Contest, and look ahead to Sunday's All-Star Game, including Luka Doncic's betting odds.

Dalton Trigg | Feb 18, 2024

In this story:

Dallas Mavericks

NBA All-Star Weekend got off to a great start for the Dallas Mavericks, as rookie big man Dereck Lively II provided a big spark for Team Jalen en route to a Rising Stars Challenge championship win on Friday night. Although Lively is still young and learning, he's been an incredibly impactful player for the Mavs during his first season, averaging 9.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 25.7 minutes per game.

“Being able to be a start as a rookie. Being able to be an impactful player, help impact winning,” Lively said about what he's loved the most about his rookie season. “Being able to earn my teammates’ respect and trust. And just being able to go out there and laugh at one another and have fun. That’s definitely something that I’ve loved. And that’s the main thing."

The Mavs didn't have any participants on Saturday night, as Damian Lillard won the 3-Point Contest and Mac McClung defended his Dunk Contest title from last year. However, the spotlight will be on Luka Doncic Sunday night, as he'll start for the Western Conference team alongside LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic.

On this special edition of the Mavs Step Back Podcast, we talk about Lively showing how special he is under the bright lights of All-Star Weekend, All-Star game daily fantasy sports odds – we make five picks, including what we think Doncic will do at +1900 odds to win the All-Star Game MVP – and finally, we take a look ahead to what awaits the Mavs next week when regular-season play resumes.

Lively believes his team is a "dark horse" title contender after the trade deadline additions of P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford, and with the Mavs finally getting healthy again, he might have a point.

Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant Name Luka Doncic Among Future Faces of NBA

"We're the dark horse that everybody doesn't want to look at, but we're in the back of their minds," Lively said. "We just got to keep this streak going, stay focused, and get each gameplan done when game time comes."

And just in case you haven't gotten enough of Lively yet, we also jump into his response to former Mavs forward Grant Williams' viral comments that appeared to be shots taken at Doncic and the Mavs. You can listen to the entire episode below, and be sure to hit that SUBSCRIBE button and leave your takes in the comment section on YouTube!

Published Feb 18, 2024

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.