The Los Angeles Lakers will visit the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday afternoon, and the two teams are excited for the road ahead.
This month, the Mavericks traded Kyrie Irving to the Lakers, and the Lakers added Malik Beasley, D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Mo Bamba to their rosters.
The Mavericks’ stars Irving and Luka Doncic did not immediately complement one another. When Doncic was out with an injury, Irving made his Mavericks debut, and the team won consecutive games. But Dallas lost two games before the All-Star break when they combined their skills.
During the Mavs’ 142-116 home victory against the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday in the team’s return from the break, Doncic and Irving finally made their breakthrough together. Irving scored 23 points and had six assists, while Doncic scored 28 points and had 10 assists.
Together, the tag team shot 55.2% from the field on 16 of 29 attempts and made 4 of 10 attempts from three-point range.
This season, Dallas has scored the most points, shot the fourth-best field goal percentage (56.1 percent) and shot the best from three-point range (52.4 percent). After being acquired through a buyout from the Houston Rockets, Justin Holiday made his Dallas debut and scored 15 points.
On Thursday, the Mavs defeated the Western Conference’s 14th-ranked team; on Sunday, they play a team just one spot higher in the standings. However, the Lakers appear to have addressed roster issues, and LeBron James and Anthony Davis are the ultimate team leaders.
The objective is to get everyone on the roster on the same page, but the real priority will be to keep James and Davis healthy until the end. Since both have been hindered by persistent injuries this season, it is not a given.
During their 124-111 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Thursday at home, the Los Angeles Lakers showed off their style of returning from the All-Star break with a team effort. In just his fourth game with the team, Beasley led Los Angeles with 25 points.
James and Davis scored 13 and 12 points, respectively, in 26 minutes each, so they didn’t have to carry the load against Golden State. However, James attempted to have an impact on the game, making just five of 20 attempts from the field.
Thursday, Russell injured his right ankle in the first quarter and was out for the rest of the game. He is not sure about Sunday.
