Doncic, who had dragged an otherwise unremarkable Mavericks team through the Western Conference, became the face of their failure. Dallas coach Jason Kidd was forced to come out and defend his maligned star, even though without Doncic, the Mavericks were a faded Kyrie Irving and a bunch of role players.

LeBron James joined NBA icon Michael Jordan as the only players to score 40 points in a game at the age of 40, pouring in 42 on Thursday as the Los Angeles Lakers held off the Golden State Warriors 120-112.

When the Dallas Mavericks traded star forward Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers late on this past Saturday (Feb 1) night, the Boston Celtics media corp was as flabbergasted as the rest of us. The deal,