Valentine's Wishes for the Mavs and NBA All-Star Luka Doncic
DALLAS – Forgotten was that fleeting moment on the court in front of a sold-out crowd when a grown man, waving his hands anxiously at the 20-year-old standing feet away from him, lost three of his marbles over a technical. Forgotten are the sugar-coated words that both parties, the grown man and the man-shaped prodigy, expressed about each other with a pseudo-smile and sniff. And with a single blow out win, forgotten are the days where the Dallas Mavericks acted like the American Airlines Center, their home, gave them some sort of stomach virus that caused them to wobble all over the court.
At least for right now.
It's Valentine's Day and NBA All-Star Weekend, an opportunity to take stock in the latter and to take "schlock'' in the former, as to me, this "Hallmark Holiday'' is really just "Happy Diabetes Awareness Day.''
But you all have your fun while we sent all our hearts and candy to my poor Sacramento Kings.
On Wednesday, the Mavericks handled business against the visiting Kings 130-111 before shipping off their sophomore wunderkind and Luke Walton now-arch nemesis, Luka Doncic, to the biting Elsa-open arms of Chicago where this happened ...
Why yes, yes I DID just fangirl all over President Obama leaning into Luka fandom while Luka smiles and jokes with him and Jason Kidd don’t mind me. (Fish's story on The President Meets The WonderBoy is below.)
While the weekend promises some sure-fire entertainment from Luka (beginning in today's 8 p.m. "Rising Stars'' game), LeBron, and everyone else in their orbit, the Mavericks have the rest of the season to prepare for.
Especially when it comes to giving themselves the gift of winning on their own court.
Let’s not beat around the bush: Sacramento might have handed the Mavs some confidence at home, but the 21-33 Kings are slowly drowning inside their own febrile problems (ones that calmly reflect off the Wildling beard of Harrison Barnes) that seem to mix injuries, front-office shenanigans, and bloated media jabber all into one giant cluster fu…mess. Cluster-mess.
Before the win over the Kings gave the Mavs some breathing room on the home front, Dallas was 14-14 at the AAC. They have lost four of their last six home games which isn’t something to cheer over. After Wednesday’s win, it was clear that the Mavericks were missing Doncic and the bromance duo of both Luka and Kristaps Porzingis (if you think I’m going to use an obnoxious portmanteau to describe the two, you’re hopelessly wrong in about 41 different ways), their absence felt throughout the corridors of the AAC.
Even though the team was reluctant to blame those losses on the Luka-filled void, it was clear that they were missing him and his confidence, confidence that seemed to spew out onto the foul line when the 20-year-old turned to coach Walton and issued a curt “Don’t do that.”
The crowd was thrilled to see him, and they expressed it in those once muffled cheers.
When the Mavericks return from the All-Star break, they head out onto the road against the Orlando Magic before swinging over to Atlanta before coming back home to Dallas to face off against Minnesota on Feb. 24. They need this break to regroup and prepare for the final stretch of the second half of the season. They need to treat every home game like a road game (or treat them like they’re all the Sacramento Kings). They need the home crowd rowdy. They need an impenetrable Luka.
And most importantly, they need to bypass the hearts and the candy and play effing defense.
