Fans’ brutal chant as Luka sends ice-cold ‘statement’, Aussie flattened in hyped NBA revenge game

But after a few questionable shots, Doncic started to warm into the game and finished with 19 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists to record his first triple-double as a Laker.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Doncic told TNT after the game.

“First and second quarters, I didn’t know what was happening. It was just different. I can’t explain how it felt. … I was hyped.

“You know how it is. But I couldn’t make (any shots) today. I’m just glad we got a win.”

As expected, Doncic put up the first shot. While it missed, Rui Hachimura crashed the glass for the offensive rebound and put it back for the opening points of the game.

While Wednesday was undeniably about Doncic and the Lakers, Kyrie Irving had become the somewhat forgotten superstar in the mix — although it didn’t take him long to remind people just how effective he can be as a one-man show.

Irving buried a triple in Doncic’s face and then added another off a steal to give the Mavericks an early 14-13 lead.

The back-and-forth between the former teammates continued as Doncic answered back with a tough 3-pointer of his own and quickly fired off a second, immediately turning around and staring down the Mavericks bench.

“You know he wants to make a statement and boy has he here,” Greg Anthony said in commentary.

The triple was later taken off the board as a Los Angeles player had stepped out of bounds in the lead-up, although it was still clear early on that this one meant something to Doncic, who also picked up a technical after arguing on a questionable no-call from the officials.

Doncic dished the ball to Austin Reaves when play resumed and he drained a quick 3-pointer to extend the Lakers’ lead out to 19-14. At that point, Doncic had scored or assisted on the Lakers’ last 12 points.

Irving was doing his best to single-handedly carry the Mavericks with 14 points in the first quarter alone as the Lakers took a 28-20 lead into the second.

The Dallas guard was 5-for-11 from the field while all other Mavericks players were 2-for-18.

Doncic, meanwhile, was already on triple-double watch at that point with nine points, seven rebounds and four assists.

When the second quarter got underway it was Naji Marshall who was bringing the drama, hitting LeBron James of all players with a “too small” taunt after scoring on him.

But it didn’t take long for the Doncic show to continue as the Slovenian superstar brought up his sixth assist of the game with a ridiculous behind-the-back pass to Austin Reaves for the 3-pointer.

Reaves himself had been highly productive with 14 points at that point, while also connecting with Dalton Knecht earlier in the game for a few assists.

The Lakers had built a 51-39 lead at that point with four minutes left in the second quarter and as if Mavericks fans needed reminding, L.A. fans started chanting “Thank you, Nico” later as Doncic shot free throws.

Doncic already had a double-double before halftime came around as the Lakers took a 59-51 buffer into the third after a 9-2 Dallas run to close things out.

While it was obviously a revenge game for Doncic, it was easy to forget Max Christie — who has a bright spot for Dallas since being traded — was also coming up against his former team.

And Christie too had a big first half, hitting a pair of triples late in the second quarter to bring up 10 points by halftime.

To only be trailing 59-51 was a win in some ways for the Mavs considering they shot just 34.6 per cent from the field in the first half.

But that number was always bound to positively regress, while the Lakers were overdue a cold streak of their own, as was the case midway through the third quarter.

Irving, meanwhile, continued to heat up as he brought up 25 points on the night to force JJ Redick into a timeout as Dallas reduced L.A.’s lead to 70-67.

The Mavericks went into the fourth quarter trailing 78-77 but were down Dante Exum after the Australian hit the ground hard contesting a James shot.

It meant the Mavericks’ were without their lead option at guard when Irving sat, as was the case in the first few minutes of the fourth quarter.

Still, Dallas was able to avoid falling much further behind in the non-Irving minutes and went into the final five minutes locked at 91-91.

But back-to-back buckets to Doncic and James put L.A. up five and the Lakers held on from there, with the pair combining for a game-sealing dunk late in the piece too.

ELSEWHERE AROUND THE NBA

The front-running Cleveland Cavaliers extended their winning streak to eight games with a 122-82 thrashing of the Orlando Magic.

Ty Jerome top-scored off the bench for Cleveland making 20 points in 21 minutes while Max Strus nailed five three-pointers as he put up 17 points.

The blowout win moves the Cavs to a league-best 48-10 record on the season, despite Donovan Mitchell being restricted to just 11 points.

“We move it quickly, we move it quickly up the floor in transition, make quick decisions, everyone touches it — it is a fun style of play,” said Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson.

“It creates a lot of open looks and our skill level is super high, you have to have high skill level to play that way,” he added.

The Boston Celtics, a place behind Cleveland in the East, took their own winning streak to six games with a 111-101 victory at the Toronto Raptors.

Jaylen Brown scored 24 points with Derrick White adding 22, while Payton Prichard had 20 points and Jayson Tatum put up 19 points and provided 11 assists for the Celtics.

White shot six of 11 three-pointers in a game where Toronto trailed by 17 early in the fourth quarter.

Although the Raptors were able to cut the lead to seven with 4:18 left the outcome was never truly in doubt, with White’s last three-pointer sealing victory.

Brown did not play in the final three minutes of the game as he struggled with an injury to his left leg.

The Celtics had been without Kristaps Porzingis through illness while Jrue Holiday was rested, Luke Kornet was absent for personal reasons and Al Horford had a sore big toe.

White praised the way the team had coped with those absences.

“Standards are standards so it doesn’t matter who is playing. A lot of guys had big minutes for us, we had to figure it out and we got the win,” he said.

The Memphis Grizzlies, third in the West, needed overtime to beat a determined Phoenix Suns 151-148 with Ja Morant top-scoring with 29 points and providing eight assists.

Morant scored 15 points in the fourth quarter including the game-tying shot before the end of regulation.