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The feelings Luka Doncic kept private during the last two months started pouring out.
Literally.
Moved to tears by a two-minute montage that played on the video scoreboard at American Airlines Center on Wednesday night, Doncic later recalled thinking, “There’s no way I’m playing this game.”
He didn’t have a choice.
Doncic wiped his eyes with a towel, walked by a gauntlet of high-fiving reserves and joined the Lakers’ other starters on the floor.
What followed was a performance described by Lakers coach JJ Redick as “superhuman.” Not even Doncic could explain what happened.
More than two months after the Dallas Mavericks traded him to the Lakers, Doncic returned to the arena he called his home for more than six years.
His line in the Lakers’ 112-97 victory: 45 points, eight rebounds, six assists and four steals.
This was the kind of moment in which Shohei Ohtani would have blasted a ball into the upper deck, and that’s what Doncic did.
What Doncic did was the basketball equivalent of Ohtani homering last month in the Dodgers’ season-opening series in Tokyo, or homering three times last year on the day he became the first 50/50 player in baseball history.
On the most high-profile stage he’s played on in a Lakers uniform, with the eyes of the entire basketball world on him, Doncic delivered.
“He’s teary-eyed still as we walk out on the court for the tip ball,” Redick said. “To have the emotional resolve to then go put on that kind of performance, it’s superhuman.”
Little wonder why Doncic remains beloved here.
He is beloved in Dallas for the same reasons Ohtani is now beloved in Los Angeles. Because he is fearless. Because he delivers. More specifically, because he delivers when he is expected to.
Never was a performance like this from Doncic as anticipated as it was Wednesday night.
Doncic’s trade to the Lakers has remained a source of controversy because of how stupid it was, pretty much everyone outside of Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison wondering why anyone would part ways with a generational talent who is still only 26.
Doncic didn’t want to be traded, and Mavericks fans didn’t want him to be traded, creating a strange dynamic in the arena in which fans of both the home and visiting teams were on the same side: Doncic’s side.
When LeBron James attempted free throws just four seconds into the game, “Fire Nico” chants started. The chants were heard throughout the game.
As obviously shaken as Doncic was by the emotionally charged environment before the game, he looked entirely unaffected during it.
“You call that an out-of-body experience,” LeBron James said.
Doncic shot and shot and shot.
By the end of the first quarter Doncic had 14 points. By halftime he had 31. The 30-point half was his first with the Lakers and the 14th of his career.
“I thought he was gonna get 50,” Redick said, jokingly adding, “I was disappointed.”
Doncic finished the game 16-for-28 shooting, including seven for 10 on three-pointers. He acknowledged he was drained by the experience.
Asked what he was thinking when he checked out of the game and received a standing ovation from what used to be his home crowd, he replied, “Honestly, I don’t really know. I wasn’t even thinking.”
Doncic said he encountered trouble sleeping Tuesday night, even though the Lakers played earlier in the day in Oklahoma City. He said he woke up exhausted Wednesday. Walking into the arena, Doncic said he was “a little bit of both, happy and angry.”
Nonetheless, he delivered.
LeBron James and the Lakers unified to support Luka Doncic during his emotional return to Dallas, instantly deepening affection among the teammates.
James explained what this could mean for the Lakers in the postseason.
“He’s battle-tested,” James said. “He’s been in big moments, he’s played in big moments throughout his career. Literally less than a year removed from the NBA Finals, so he knows what to expect. He’s special with it.”
Doncic was already an established star when he moved to Los Angeles, just as Ohtani was last year. Now, Doncic will have the chance to do what Ohtani did, to become a champion, to become a civic hero.
He just has to deliver again.
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