Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Mavericks Won't Stop Badmouthing Luka Dončić, Which Is Probably Good for the Lakers

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everyone, welcome to Locked-on Lakers for Thursday. Thursday, I believe. The Dallas Mavericks, Andy, they just won't stop trashing Luca Donchich. I don't know why. Talk about it next. You are Locked-on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:33 Thanks to everybody for making Lockedon Lakers. First listen to Every Day Monday. through Friday, no matter how or where you get your podcast, this one's always free, never behind paywall. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is, I'm just going to call it 33,000 subscribers because it's just that close. They're all hanging out and wondering why the Dallas Mavericks seem to be intent on continuing to trash Luca Donchich following the trade. It is kind of of amazing, and when you continue to see what they're doing this time, Sam Amick, the great reporter at The Athletic. He brings some post-Dalice reaction from inside the building down there.

Starting point is 00:01:22 And once again, they are trying to make the point that Luca was not worth the risk, I guess, but man, alive. It's not how I would handle it. From Sam's piece, quote, no mistake, the people who witnessed Donchich's last days in Dallas do not paint a flattering portrait of the 25-year-old's professionalism. They call him lazy. They talk about the weight issues that were such a frequent frustration within their walls. They mentioned the social habits that the athletic has reported on, a link to a previous report, such as a taste for beer and hookah, which has been, hookah rhymes with Luca. By the way, there are going to be a billion Fantasy football teams next year in Los Angeles named Beer and Huka.

Starting point is 00:02:06 I don't know. There's a question about that. Honestly, man, if I'm Luca, I lean into this and I open a shop called Lucas Hookas. Just lean into this thing, baby, because you will make some serious coin. Which has been a point of concern for NBA type since he was a 19-year-old star for Real Madrid, who was entering the draft. They predict his basketball demise highlighting a health history that, as some see it, will likely lead to catastrophe in the next five years or so.

Starting point is 00:02:37 Those next five years, Brian, by the way, for those who do not know exactly how the CBA works, coincides perfectly with the amount of time he would have been on a supermax. So like those five years in particular, or as Dallas would have referred to them, the expensive ones, those are the ones that they were apparently looking to avoid with Luca. and look, these type of reports are nothing new. And frankly, these conversations about Luca have gone on and have been documented well before this trade shocked the world. And, you know, maybe to some degree this is just Sam reframing things he's been previously. No, I think this is new stuff that people are saying to him that he was going to say, I am guessing.

Starting point is 00:03:22 Absolutely. For people, we've talked about this. We're like, we don't like to get into this guy said this or trash some dude saying something on TV or the radio. We try not to use people by name when we're making criticisms of media. The opposite of that is people that we think are very good. We will call out by name. And there are a few guys who are more sort of fastidious about what they do in terms of making sure things are well reported and playing things as you should as a sports journalist and Sam

Starting point is 00:04:02 Amick. I mean, he is as much of a pro as you're going to find. This is new stuff that people in Dallas are continuing to feed to him. It hits on themes like you say, Andy, that we've, that people know about. But what I just, what I think is also too, just, I mean, to really drive the point home that I figure this is to some degree new stuff, Sam was in the building. on Tuesday night in the Lakers Mavericks game. And I'm not saying that this was directly said to him by Nico Harrison, but it says in Sam's piece that he actually spoke with Nico and presumably spoke with other people, just to give that detail.

Starting point is 00:04:43 Like Sam was actually there and continuing his reporting. And like you said, he's one of the best in the business. It is one of these deals where, look, I, And we're going to, there's a, there's a fascinating, because this is Ramona Shelburne and her TikTok of this whole deal, which was, I believe, published last week on ESPN, which is worth read. We didn't get it. We didn't get a chance to get into it. This conversation will open that door again. There's a fascinating parallel in this whole storytelling to Kobe and Nico Harrison's relationship to Kobe, Rob Polinka's relationship to Kobe. We'll get to that probably in

Starting point is 00:05:22 the next segment. But. What I think is amazing about this is at this point, Andy, everybody knows why Dallas traded Luca. Most people think they're way off the mark in terms of what they did. But everybody gets it. They did not think he was a sound investment at the Supermax. That's it. We'll find out to some degree. And like, you know what?

Starting point is 00:05:58 If Luca breaks down and doesn't get in shape, and two years from now, the Lakers are sitting on this contract of a 27-year-old guy who plays 30 games a year, everybody's looking at Nico Harrison and say, wow, you know what? That was pretty ballsy, and he turned out to be right.

Starting point is 00:06:18 If he doesn't, people are going to say Nico was a moron, he was in. He might be. But like from his perspective, this could be the thing that inspires Luca to get in shape, do all this stuff. There is no way to. Are you saying this trade was a roundabout way of tough love? He was trying to get Luca in shape. If Luca comes back in the next three preseason in fantastic shape plays 65 to 72 games a year and looks like Luca Donchich, the argument in Dallas would still be, if he had been with us,

Starting point is 00:06:56 he wouldn't have done those things. And there's no way to prove that. And it also doesn't matter. So shut up. Because if you're the Mavericks, this doesn't do them any good. No. I mean, first of all,

Starting point is 00:07:09 like you said, we'll know by the end of Luca's time in L.A. Or just however his prime shakes out, whoever he's playing with. I think the Lakers are fairly confident. and it's going to be them, but we'll ultimately know whether or not Nico Harrison was prescient about this.

Starting point is 00:07:29 There's also a chance that Nico Harrison could have been right that this trade for Anthony Davis and Max Christie ends up working well for the Mavericks. Like Anthony Davis, when healthy is a hell of a player. I think Max Christie has shown a trajectory where he could be one of the better three and D players in the league.

Starting point is 00:07:50 like thou the lady doth protests too much like you don't need to justify your actions of a trade that you're saying you think is going to be great for the team by continually if you're the mavericks organization leaking not just bad stuff about luke about like the same bad stuff yes over and over and over and like look when the lakers landed pow gassol that deal was roundly mocked by the entire league. Greg Popovich nearly had a conyption fit in front of you and I in a pregame before San Antonio, like losing his proverbial bleep about this deal. And as it turned out, that deal worked out pretty well for Memphis in the end. Like there's a lot of different ways this can go other than just straight where a fat guy was moved. Right. Like this is Marcus

Starting point is 00:08:48 all pre getting in shape. But like, how's tubby little brother? Yeah. Like there are a bunch of different ways this can turn out that aren't just, that are not just, Nico Harrison is an idiot. However, the way the Mavericks are handling this in terms of their messaging is straight up idiotic. That's the difference. I'll say this too.

Starting point is 00:09:14 Like, if I'm a Mavericks fan, I'm sure Nick at Lock on, Locked on Mavericks, I was saying, just please stop talking because everybody nobody, hey, the fans don't like it. You know, they still don't like the explanation. Everybody knows it. People still don't like it. If you're trying to win the PR battle, it is not helping. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:09:33 Okay. So then from there, you're also, you've got like, why would a star want to go play for this team knowing if this is how they're going to treat guys that, you know, they put up those kinds of numbers, go to a finals, blah, blah, blah. That's a Mavericks pro. The other thing I would say if I'm locked on Mavericks is shut the heck up because all you're doing is motivating Luca to not be the thing that you say that he is.

Starting point is 00:10:03 So what I would say to Nico Harrison is keep leaking. Keep saying that Luca is too fat and doesn't care and is going to hookah his way out of the league and cares more about his beer than he does. I mean, what do you put in a hookah? I've never, is it tobacco? Yeah, it's tobacco or I suppose you could put other things in it if you want. But at hookah bars, it is my understanding that it is tobacco often flavored. Right.

Starting point is 00:10:30 Okay. It's been a long time since I've been a cigarette smoker. So once I quit that, I had no interest in the hookah scene. Yeah, it's just from my, like he's doing, he's continuing to do the Lakers of favor. Because, you know, Luca is a, is a, is a. incredibly competitive and by all accounts, very petty guy, like in a star athlete petty way. So by all means, keep doing this. We didn't get to, Andy, something that I know you wanted to talk about, which was LeBron's

Starting point is 00:11:03 defense. We'll get to that later in the show. But next, let's talk about this Kobe connection because it's a fascinating aspect of this story that obviously, for our... audience is going to be particularly interesting. So we get to that next. Lockdown-Lakers is brought to you by Fandul when the game tips off. The NBA action is just getting started. There's no better place to get in on it than Fandul. America's number one sports book with Fandul, you can place live bets throughout the game. So even if you miss the opening tip off or want to bet on a fourth quarter

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Starting point is 00:12:26 the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Quick mention the newsletter. You go to locked on daily.com and you subscribe there to the Lockedown Lakers newsletter. You just go to Lockdown Daily. You click on Lockedon Lakers and you get a piece of analysis from us every day. will something we write up every night and send out, along with some great analysis from around the rest of the

Starting point is 00:12:56 locked on network, the NBA channel. And of course, it'll take you to the podcast too. Of course, you could get the podcast by subscribing on iTunes or wherever you know, Spotify. Maybe that's where you get your podcasts. The one of the things, go back and find this story from Ramona Shelburne at ESP. in.

Starting point is 00:13:20 One of the, the reason if people have missed this detail, and I think most people haven't, but you know, that Rob Polinka and Nico Harrison were able to get together on this. Harrison was a longtime executive at Nike, obviously very close relationship with Kobe Bryant, Kobe and Rob, that was his agent. And so these guys knew each other quite well. part of what got Nico to believe that Luca wasn't his guy was his experience watching Kobe. It's also from Sam Amick's piece.

Starting point is 00:14:00 Harrison's personal journey adds an even deeper layer to the discussion. He rose to prominence as the trusted shoe representative for the Lakers Kobe Bryant and thus clearly decided that Donchage didn't fit the quote, Mamba mentality bill. Conversely, the combination of Harrison's close relationship with Davis from their days together at Nike, as well as his strong belief that title contenders need to be special defensively clearly played a pivotal part in the decision-making process. As Tim Kato of DLLS reported, after the deal went down, his league sources confirmed to the athletic, Harrison is known to have a kind of short-term view of his GM role that might explain his impatience with Donchich's

Starting point is 00:14:40 development. He and they have no time to waste if he's going to do this job for a few years. I mean, sure, Luke has been like a top three player in the league for like three or four years, but I don't know if Nika's got the sweet time to wait around for that guy to hit number one. Lucas development? I mean, look, what? I think there is a. I mean, sure, he's a bit of a project, but I got to tell you, lately, like, seeing him up close, I'm feeling good about his potential moving forward. You know, when I think of projects on the Lakers currently, I think of Brony first, but then Luca, right out.

Starting point is 00:15:26 Like, who do you think develops quicker between the two, Luca or Brony? Like starting now, blank slate, the two of them. Are the Lakers going to give Luca the time and the G that he needs, or are they going to rush this? He's been in the league so long now. They can't do it. That's a shame. Old tubby's going to throw a donut fit if they bring that up. Look, I think there is going to be a change in the way that NBA GMs look at max contracts, at supermax contracts.

Starting point is 00:15:59 Five years ago is like a guy gets up for it. It's like, of course we're going to. And now you hear whispers that, you know, obviously the Mavericks, didn't want to give that money to Luca, that the Grizzlies may not be tripping over themselves to give a full supermax or whatever jaw is available to get because of the stuff, you know,

Starting point is 00:16:21 to go back to what that happened last year, but more than anything, the fact that the guy just is, he's has trouble staying on the floor. And, you know, these investments that teams have to make in players that, you know, 75, 85, soon, you know, it's going to be touching a hundred million dollars a year pretty soon. If you make the

Starting point is 00:16:41 investment in the wrong guy, you are crippling your franchise for years. I don't think there's a... I get all that stuff. But there's no... Other than like, okay, we can give a supermax to Nicola Yokic. It's like, okay,

Starting point is 00:16:58 like, that's the only guy, apparently, according to Niko Harrison, who is not risky enough to do this. And like, I find this, Kobe connection fascinating because it's like he doesn't have the Mamba mentality. Kobe loved Luca. Kobe thought Luca was phenomenal.

Starting point is 00:17:18 You know, and Luca talks about that moment where he, you know, shook his hand and saw him court side and all that kind of stuff. Rob Polinka was Kobe's agent. So the guy, you have this warring. view of two guys holding up Kobe as an example. And Nico saying, not Kobe enough. And Rob essentially saying,

Starting point is 00:17:49 like he's like getting our Kobe again, like the star that we need. And I, that view of it, you know, the Lakers do everything in the model and the, in the memory of Kobe Bryant. And,

Starting point is 00:18:04 you know, so that aspect, of it. When I first read that about Nico, I was like, you, that is stunning to me. Well, it's, I mean, it's incredibly ironic that Nico would make this trade of a guy that he does not think has enough of the mama mentality to an organization that is run by a guy that was hired in part because of his relationship to Kobe, the creator of the mama mentality to begin with. And since Kobe's passing, in all

Starting point is 00:18:41 honesty, is considered a lot of, in a lot of ways to be the gatekeeper of the mama mentality. It's a couple comments here that I think stand out, first of all, from Hammerbee 1169 calling Luca project is like calling the Getty V a fixer upper. But also

Starting point is 00:18:57 I think it's not a fixer upper. I also think this one from happily living. Malove, I think, is also very accurate. If Kobe is your standard, no one will ever meet it. And this is something that the Lakers have actually,

Starting point is 00:19:15 we've talked about this many times over the years covering the team, a trap that they've often allowed themselves to get caught up in. Like the idea that the mythology of Kobe, which was very, it was obviously real and well-earned and a one-of-one type player, it's great if you use that as motivation or something for your

Starting point is 00:19:45 players to use as an example of trying to get the best out of yourself, all that stuff. But like, Mamba mentality was both real and branding. And like you can't get so caught up in the ethos of what was a again, branding, that you start making your decisions based on whether somebody can meet a branding standard to make sure that in trying to meet that, you are keeping yourself grounded in reality on a bunch of different fronts. I look at it this way too. It's like Shaq didn't have the Mamba mentality.

Starting point is 00:20:27 And that's, you know, I'm going to heal on company time, all that kind of stuff. We knew about some of that stuff when Shaq was 20. 25 years old. You know, like that kind of, would you let a 25-year-old shack get away because you don't think he's a good 10-year investment? Absolutely not.

Starting point is 00:20:47 Could we live in a world where when Luca gets close to 30, when, you know, where we're having a debate about like that second contract he's up for with the Lakers? Do you max him out again after whatever deal he's going to sign this? Okay, yeah, maybe like, you know, Joe L.M.B. is a cautionary tale. Paul George is a cautionary tale.

Starting point is 00:21:08 There are a lot of guys. Damian Lillard, to some degree, cautionary tale. Like you look, but not when they're 25, and not when they're coming off five straight all NBA seasons, and not when they just went to the freaking finals. And none of this is to say, by the way, that like, there isn't an onus on Luca to be better with some of this stuff. Of course there is.

Starting point is 00:21:30 Kobe used to eat McDonald's before games. Like Kobe, there was a McDonald's at the Staples Center at the time. And I was always fascinated by the amount of professional athletes that were eating McDonald's before they did. By his own admission for the first several years of his career, ate like bleep. Now, he was also a maniacal workaholic. But let's be honest, you don't get this good at what Luca does without putting a little work. especially when you're Luca and you're not super athletic where just your natural gifts can paper over everything else. Like, Luca's a skill player.

Starting point is 00:22:09 You can develop that. I, one more thing I want to say about this. And I want to get to some of the stuff I know you wanted to talk about with LeBron's defense, because that in as much as anything, obviously the trade is important. And this, that, you know, the run of success the Lakers have had predates the trade. It predates all of that stuff. And LeBron's defense is integral to that. I do want to let people know before we go to break in today's episodes

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Starting point is 00:23:58 offered by Robin Hood Gold LLC. So Andy and I, Andy still does tons of work. I pop on there occasionally, but Andy is a regular at 710 ESPN in Los Angeles, the flagship station of the Lakers. And we used to when he was there, work a lot with Max Kellerman. And one of the things that Max said that I always thought was really smart was it is very easy to get hung up like in greatness and wishing that it was greater. All players could be greater in some way.

Starting point is 00:24:36 great if this guy was even greater. Well, yeah, like, you know, Kobe had a little better shot selection or it was a little better of a leader or all these, like, he'd be even greater than he was. But you know what? He's pretty great as it is. So let's just appreciate that. I feel like there's a lot of that with Luca here. It's like, is he perfect? He is not. Does he need to get in and stay in better shape? Yes, yes, he does. But we're not talking about a guy who, you know, has he missed some games over the course of his career? He has. But he played 70 last year. And he has never played fewer than 61.

Starting point is 00:25:18 So that in the modern ending, you know, keeping in mind, too, that some of these seasons in the middle are COVID seasons where there weren't 82 games to play. So, I mean, I look at this and I'm like, where is this long track record of injuries or something like that? Yes, it would be great if Luca were greater, but I am going to bet a thousand times out of a thousand on the guy with this much talent at 25 years old to be good for another five years. And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. There are a couple of years that I've got to eat on this contract,

Starting point is 00:25:53 but find me another player with Lucas skill. Look at what he did in the first half on Tuesday. He wasn't even playing that well by his own stand. any damn near at a triple double in the first half. This guy is crazy talented. I get also that there are concerns that specifically Luca's injuries have been related to conditioning, you know, the recurrent calf issues, lower extremities.

Starting point is 00:26:24 Like just to clarify for people, like all, I understand all of those concerns. Like again, when this deal broke because it was, a, so out of left field, and Luca is so good, both of our immediate reaction was, what does Dallas know? I mean, like, that is where both of our brains first went,

Starting point is 00:26:45 even before, like, holy bleep, the Lakers have Luca, like starting a month before he officially enters his prime. Even before that, we were like, okay, what do they know? Did they mark Rob Belinka as a mark? Just because, again, like, this was so head spinning. But once that reaction has started to Peter away from me and you just started thinking about the idea of holy bleep, Luca is a Laker, again, you just start getting into more of the, how would any other team handle this? Like, you would be, it's very rare to have the Tim Duncan's or the Steph Curry's, the franchise face superstar, first ballot hall of famous.

Starting point is 00:27:34 like there's truly nothing to manage with those guys. Like Duncan, Curry, they're like on the shortest of lists, you know, maybe Dwayne Wade of like guys that it just seemed like there really was nothing to sort of eggshell walk with any of them. Like they're the rare guys. Most superstars have some degree of bleep that you need to deal with. Like Kobe obviously dedication to the game was not an issue for Kobe at all. But there was a lot of there was a lot of eggshell walking with Kobe.

Starting point is 00:28:11 Like he was really high maintenance. And there were times where quite frankly he was a pain in the ass to the organization. Was he worth it? Hell yes. Like hell yes. And both of those things can be true and is typically true for most star. You and I, I'm sure they'll do this in Dallas, and we'll get to, we'll finish on LeBron here for a few minutes. But last thing on this is just, I want to do the same thing for Luca that we tried to come around to doing for AD, which was not move the bar.

Starting point is 00:28:49 It's like, Luca is not quite, he's not there yet, which I understand. There is a level of performance and output that you expect from Luca and it's extraordinarily high. but I think the goal here is to set that bar at a reasonable place and leave it there. And that bar is not perfection in every way. And it's never been that for any player. And it wasn't that for Kobe. But Kobe didn't meet a bar of perfection. And so I think that's what I'm looking for.

Starting point is 00:29:22 You have some stuff that you wanted to talk about for this show, specifically about LeBron and LA's defense. I thought it was really interesting last night after the Dallas game, which obviously Luca was the story of the game heading into it just because there's so much story with it. But LeBron's performance, and in particular, his fourth quarter was incredible. And LeBron is who really more than any other single Laker pushed that game over the top. And I don't remember the question JJ was asked after the game that specifically brought I probably just like some version of like, how does LeBron keep doing this, whatever.

Starting point is 00:30:01 And JJ said, quote, again, he defies what is normal. That's not an exaggeration. If you watch our basketball team every night and then watch our team now for the last six weeks or so, LeBron's playing at an all NBA defense level. Now, people may have perceptions of what he is as a defender. I watch it every night. He doesn't get scored on in isolations if teams do try to target him. He blows, plays up.

Starting point is 00:30:25 He's always in the right position, shifting, recovering. I think there was a perception of him at this age like conserving energy. No, there's no conservation of energy on that end of the floor. He's played elite defense now for a while. And I found that really interesting. First of all, I looked up some numbers, and obviously this is an overly simplistic way to distill it down, but I think it tracks with the eye test and the overall success of the team. The Lakers defensive rating for the season is 113.

Starting point is 00:30:59 And LeBron's for the season is 112.9. So basically LeBron's is exactly at the same level of the team overall. And if you don't think the defense was good enough overall, then it goes without saying that LeBron's metrics, which are the same as the overall defense, also not good enough. Last six weeks that JJ brought up, and you and I have actually talked about LeBron's defense in that same framing as well. The last six weeks, the Lakers defensive rating, 107.4. So considerably better.

Starting point is 00:31:36 LeBron's 105.8 over the last six weeks. And this time, LeBron's defense is actually slightly better than the defensive rating of the team, which has gotten incredibly better. And it speaks to, A, it speaks to LeBron's dedication to that end that we've talked about a lot over the last four to six weeks that he deserves a ton of credit for. What I also think is interesting about it is that concept of, and I understand that national media, like a lot, everybody doesn't get to watch every game. You and I don't get to watch every game of the other 29 teams. But there is still a, as JJ rightly pointed out, a perception that LeBron is this massive defensive liability. now that he honestly was earlier in the season, which I'd say he was in October and November. And you and I talked about that a lot, often pissing off some of our audience in the process.

Starting point is 00:32:36 But it was the truth. He is now not doing that. And I just think it's really interesting how that piece of this really hasn't caught up to, I think, the perception of the team. because when you hear people talk about now new expectations for the Lakers and, you know, what's their ceiling? Could they win a championship? When defense gets brought up, and I think there's still a lot of people who don't really recognize the team's defense has gotten a lot better, Reeves, Luca, and LeBron are always brought up as the reason the defense can't be very good. Like, you know, that's going to be the problem for the Lakers, is those three.

Starting point is 00:33:15 and LeBron specifically, if he's playing like this, good luck targeting him. Like I can tell you right now, coaches are not going to target LeBron because the last thing you want to do is piss that guy off and give him a true reason to step up the defense to a level he's still capable of doing. I think Austin and even Luca have been pretty good defensively the last couple games, but it still applies to them, I think, in terms of the relative, if nothing else, the relative weaknesses of this defense. But like if LeBron's playing like this, he's not a liability.

Starting point is 00:33:54 No, he's a plus before, not now. He's a plus. And I, LeBron has always, there's like a lot of stars. Like a lot, you know, he has always been able to crank it up defensively when he needs to. The problem is he can't do it, you know, at this age and do LeBron on offense. And like last year, LeBron had to be.

Starting point is 00:34:13 Part of the problem with the Lakers was LeBron and AD both played a ton of games and had to be way too good for just for the Lakers to kind of hang out around the play in, you know, that level. And that, you know, that's just that's not tenable. The way that Reeves has developed, the way that now you bring in somebody like Luca, like look at LeBron's assist number since Luca got here. They have plummeted. And it's not because LeBron stopped caring about passing. it's because he doesn't have to do it as much of that stuff. And the energy that he doesn't have to put out on offense, he can transfer the defense.

Starting point is 00:34:50 And quite frankly, I think he finds the challenge of being a lockdown defender at age 40 more interesting than doing the other stuff. Like, and so that's interesting. I hadn't thought about that way. You talk about the, you know, the stuff that you got to do to stay interested and motivated at 40 in year 22. do. Like all of, this is, this helps. And so I, we'll see what happens tonight. You know, obviously another tough game against Minnesota. You've got two games coming up against the

Starting point is 00:35:18 clippers that are going to be difficult with Kauai Leonard back in the lineup. We'll see what it looks like. But if the Lakers play well again defensively, win or lose and, you know, hold the wolves and the clippers between 100 and 110 points, whatever might be, you're looking at something that's, it seems pretty sustained. And I'm impressed. And it starts with I think the defense has been unbelievably impressive. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you can go hang out with about 32, 33,000 subscribers to the channel. Of course, we will be back following the game. Check out the postcast with Dave Palais.

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Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - The Mavericks Won't Stop Badmouthing Luka Dončić, Which Is Probably Good for the Lakers

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