The Jason Smith Show with Mike HarmonToday on The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon, the guys react to Luka Doncic’s return to Dallas & how it was beneficial to both teams to get over this emotional game so they could move on + NFL Insider Jason Cole & NBA Insiders Marc Stein stop by!
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The Jason Smith Show.
With my best friend Mike Harmon, Live from the Tirack dot Com Studios tyrac dot com. I'll help you get there in unmatched selection, fast free shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers. Tirat dot Com is the way time buying should be well. The Luka Doncich Return Game is in the books. Anthony Davis forty seven points. Jason Kidd played tonight triple double Jason Kid triple double, ten points, ten rebounds, tennis No Luka Doncich forty five points for the Lakers in his emotional return to Dallas forty five, eight rebound, six assists. He had thirty one in the first half, and the Lakers cruise by the Mavericks one twelve to ninety seven. Yes, Ady did play much like the National title game with Clayton on Monday, and.
I took him a while to get into store. Beat the hell out of.
Him thirteen, eleven and six. But it doesn't matter. This was Luca's night again. Forty five points, sixteen out of twenty eight from the floor, seven to three pointers. This was exactly Look, it's one of those games where for the Lakers, I actually have more to say about the Mavericks aspect it for the Lakers. It was one of those games you're looking forward to, but you also want to get passed. Right, here's an emotional return. The playoffs will start next week, all right. We gotta that we got. It's a big deal. We want to come out, especially off the last night with the rescinded technical foul.
We want to get out. We want to make sure Luca has a big night. We want to win this game because we want to finish as high in the standings as possible. We don't want to lose home court in the first round of the playoffs. And mission accomplished for the Lakers. It's a big sigh of relief. We can check this game off and now we can move on. Hey, you clintch a top second six finish. Now that you won this one, we get to watch Denver play next boy, I'm so excited about that.
But well, I'm coaching this game, surrogate. Yes, I'm coaching.
Camera.
Yeah, I just said Robot Smith hand his time for the pregame huddle with the team. Hang on a second ahead, guys, get the ball to Yokich. No, no, no, on every possession, just get it to them all the time. And then if you get an easy put back, at easy put back, but get it to Yokich.
Okay, good, guys, go, I'll see it the first time out. Coach, you forgot the second part. But he got the other guy fired. He can get you gone to Oh.
I'm sorry, guys, Play with joy, play with energy, play with abandon. I'm not gonna rip you to the press after and say you don't watch film or you know you guys don't get it. No, I love all of you, guys. This is the gene Hackman part where I say I love you guys at the end of go and play with joy. Okay, I'll see it the first time out. Yeah, nicely did.
But it's one of those that coming off of last night's game, right, motional and anger and all of that. The rescinding technical is a whole other mess. But you just wanted You're glad you had a game tonight, so you can get whether it's the Mavericks or somebody else, just get the taste out of your mouth from that one, because you're still salty about how that game went. Right, you're fighting the top team, your your neck and neck and then they cut your legs out from under you and you can fight about it, and you know, reputation, calls, all of that come into play.
But for for Luca.
And he came out shooting well right, that was the There's been the knock during his time with the Lakers is the outside shot hasn't always fallen and if he struggles there, then other parts of the game tend to follow. And he started hitting from beyond the arc. For whatever reason, they never decided to double him on drives or any time he had the ball, which is what the Lakers did to Anthony Davis. Anytime the ball came anywhere near second man was on it, they had three and four guys on him. It wasn't he had nowhere to go about box. In one minute, there's the box all around Anthony Davis. So a really emotional game. Luca in tears the beginning. They had a big video tribute for him.
Here's his first bucket back in Dallas following the trade earlier to the Lakers.
Door. Now Wave goes colors number seventy seven on his back. We'll get it right back. Luca down. The crowd on their feet when he knocks down the trip.
Sarah was Billy Max Dulance Lakers TV. Again, you knew it was one of those nights. Luca is a very emotional player, so you knew coming in, Hey, he's gonna go for a lot. He's gonna score fifteen in the first quarter.
Easiest bet. No, no, I'm not.
I'm not gonna sit here and tell you what to do with your money. But wow, when you told me a few minutes ago thirty was the over, thirty and a half of the over for his points tonight, I would have said, are you kidding you cash it made that line? What lunatic made that line? He's gonna have fifteen in the first quarter. Of course he's going over thirty.
Well, but the expectation is that, you know they'd play defense and not go Who is it on Kobe Bryant that allowed him to go for eight?
He loant?
Sam Mitchell decided Sam, oh yeah, So we just wanted to get sam Mitchell in on this. But you know, from the Dallas side, you know that there'd be some pride. You had your interior defensive players back when you talk about Anthony Davis, Daniel Gafford being back and all of that, but it didn't matter. Seven to ten from three point range. You cash that ticket at halftime because he had thirty one from the total, it was just forty seven and a half. Yeah oh yeah, sure, sure points, rebounds and assists and you walked past that really easy licking bills.
Right about now.
Jason Smith Mike Harmon Live from the Tireck dot Com studios. Now here's the big takeaway from the game. And if you listen to it, you watch any of it, you probably heard a very familiar chant going up through the arena every time Luca touched the basketball, he was cheered. He would make a bucket, he was cheered. Now the Mavericks fans cheered for their players as well, but not quite as loud as they cheered for the guy in purple and gold wearing number seventy seven. So take a look, take a listen if you can hear the chant going up throughout the arena in Dallas during this game while Luca is just torching the Dallas Mavericks.
No, sir, no, every day. You know, I came in and prepared. You know, it could get myself back help, you know, so I can. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to sell that. That's not that's the wrong chance.
That was these wrong ers that got themselves the fans on the jumpbo and then they turned around and it said sell the team on the back. I would say, I think they probably want to sell the team. It's the ownership that made this as well. Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to wear a few of those chance or screams with some explatives inserted therein. But you know, Mavericks fans wanted to fire somebody, So let's just listen to see who they wanted to fire in the game. Yeah, the fire Nico chance for gm Nico Harrison continuing to resound through the arena. But but here's the thing, this is, here's here's where Isaac.
When you think I'm gonna say it's only following orders the Lakers win, who's gonna.
Do We're just following order? You looked out Dad Downey. Downey wasn't in the room. I think that would have been important to know. It doesn't matter. We put Jess up on the stand, we get oh, we get it from him. We just we just get it from them. We get it from Okay, should we or should we not follow the advice of the galactically stupid?
Yeah, baby, let's go. That's how you start a win.
That's that's Mavericks fans, really well done, practical least do uh. It was like I said, it was a night where you could feel the electricity in the arena. It was a bad night for the Mavericks in the win loss column, but it was a good night for them because now is the first time when as a franchise they can feel Okay, we've hit the bottom. We've had the final bit that we were looking forward to that we had to get past right, because they're morning losing Luka Doncic, they're still mourning the state of the team. Are they going to trust what's going on? Should we not follow the advice? Well, you don't, Tom galactically stupid in that works. But this is that this was the moment where if you're the Mavericks and I think unconsciously, if you're a Mavericks fan, this was the game you were waiting for. But for the Mavericks franchise, it's okay, we got to get past the first Luca game back here. We'd love for it to be tomorrow because we can get back. But it's a big emotional release for the who are still upset. And look, they'll get on board if the Mavericks start winning next year and suddenly, hey, here comes Kyrie and ad and look at them, and they add somebody else in the office because look, they have money to spend because they're not giving three hundred and fifty million dollars to Luka Doncic. So if you know, hey, there's time for that. But you got to get past this, you got to you got to take it all down to the studs before you build up the build the team back up, and by that I mean you build a relationship back between.
The franchise and the fans.
You let the fans have an emotional release, and now they all realize, Okay, we're at the bottom. Now we're at ground zero for everything, and now we can just build back and go forward. Luca's not coming back. We were thinking about it. It's on my mind.
We came back, we said goodbye, was very cathartic, and now we can move on as a franchise.
So this is a big day for Dallas.
It's a positive day for him because again, like the Lakers, hey, emotionally you want to get past.
It's a big deal for Luca. We're getting ready for the playoffs. For the Mavericks franchise, Okay, we got to rebuild trust, we got to rebuild excitement in the team. Want to make sure we're selling season tickets. This is the day we have to get passed. And now they got passed. They lost.
Okay, not that big a deal, Not like this is a loss that suddenly hey, it's killing this hope or this hope. The Mavericks are a team that they don't have a lot, right Kyrie got hurt, ad couldn't get back in the lineup. They understand this is one of those lost kind of seasons, but for them it's now.
It's more.
It's so valuable from the mental aspect to be of Okay, now I'm at peace.
It happened. I deal with it.
The name on the front of the jersey is still more important the name on the back. Even though I hated the trade, I'm still a Mavericks fan. And now I go for any franchise that loses a long time player something like this, a very shocking trade. You need that cathartic moment, and that was tonight for the Mavericks. So now they can really start to build back up. And I'm telling you, a healthy Mavericks team would have been in the in the top fourish of the playoffs this year because adding Ad with a healthy Kyrie, they would have been They have a pretty good supporting cast, They would have won a bunch of games. They would have been in the top They probably would been a top six ers team. But when Ad can't play, Kyrie gets hurt, what are you gonna do. It's one of those things. But this team will be back up next year. They have an off season make right moves. But this was the day they had to get by.
Yeah. I mean you got a two and a half point game lead over the Sons.
Who will see what kind of effort we get out of them against OKC after that debacle their last time out. But you look at a squad and a city and I know there's some why would you celebrate this? Why would you do this? Like, no, because it's good. It's a cleansing for the fans and everybody. As you say, now, I like that Luca and his people were petty and there were a bunch of business opportunities to sit for the Mavericks and they said, no, you're not going to do them, which was kind of cool. Different little sponsor activations and things with the court and whatever that they played a little game of pettiness there, I know for the longer term, And we talked about this at the time of the trade. It wasn't just the Luca contract. You're not paying out. That's great in terms of roster building, but as a franchise, you got to go figure out where a lot of those funds are coming back from. It's like if suddenly the Dodgers found out that Shoeotani was leaving, not that you would trade him away, but if he.
Goes, a lot of that money goes. Look look what the Angels.
I mean, they're a nice little surprise here the first couple of weeks of the season, But as soon as he left Anaheim, it's like, wow, look at all of that revenue that walked out the door.
And for Luca and Dallas it was the same thing.
So they've got a long term, giant, gaping hole that they'll need to figure out there.
But for tonight, it's a big celebration. I mean, what'd you want a montage of him eating.
French fries and drinking a beer with his dad in the hallway and then seeing if you get a good response with Michael Finley takes it away.
No, I don't think you are. I don't think you're gonna do that.
I think you're gonna celebrate all the good moments, the romped to the NBA title round and opportunities and what he was.
You played time of your life. Good riddance, and you move on. Here's your T shirt. I'll go to let's get back to the games.
No, I mean it's it's it's something to be said for that, because it is you are mourning a loss like these Mavericks. I'm sure the Mavericks fans are still stunned that they don't have Muker. Like it's still one of those things. It doesn't seem real, Like again, right now, it doesn't seem real that Jets had Aaron Rodgers. We had him for two years right like we had it. It doesn't seem real and don't seem like it really happened. Well, here's the thing though, because it blends in with the twelve years of futility before it. M that's true, you know what I mean, Like if it had Aaron Rodgers coming in, he's putting us over the top because we're right there. But still the we didn't have any of anymore, We didn't have we have any bigger expectations than we had with Rogers.
No.
I it was like, you guys are just gonna think, yeah, okay now, but now we're not. Now we take so I get that. It's still it's still that sort of a that sort of a moment of still trying to reconcile it in your head. And that's why tonight it really is really a big deal. For the fans, for the media, for the team, for their relationship, for moving forward, for being being at the bottom and saying, Okay, now we're gonna build back trust, We're gonna build everything towards. You need a night like this, And that's why I said they probably wish they had it months ago so they can say, all right, hey, we traded Luca, we played next week here they played. They played against him in Los Angeles. That's not the same thing. So now for the Mavericks's, okay, now we can move on.
Ad didn't get to play in that game, right, he was unavailable, So now he got on the court here. So you have the catharsis of all of that. And obviously the guys that played with Luca, they were expected to finish their careers with him. That was going to be the guy that was going to be setting them up for major contracts down the line. He ain't there, right, So now it's the how do you move on? In your locker room? You saw all the video of him walking around the facility and hugging all the people that he hadn't seen. Oh yeah, buddy, guys running out of their offices arms filled with stuff like because they heard he's walking down the hall and didn't want to miss him.
Doing right now.
He just got Michael Finley's attention. Hey Michael Finley. Boom, and he's a shot gun in a whole beer tall boy. Can't take it from me, can't take it from me yet, here's a schlitz. I got the cheap, that's what I could get. I'm just I was hitting this bad boy. Yeah, buddy, where's my vape pen? I'm gonna be vaping out of my ear at the same time I'm shot gunning that beer.
I was going full old style from my old Polish neighborhood in Chicago, Jimney Pievo, you know, going down. So congratulations to the Lakers, Luca donc it's a big game. You saw the emotion in the even before tip off, right Lebron and he exchanging some words. He's like, come on, man, I need you and Luca's got tears in his eyes and go out and he hammered him.
So big game.
Some nights are just about emotion and how you deal with things, and that's what tonight was from both sides.
So look again, it's a big you know, big zig. When you think I'm gonna zag sunny side up for the math. Look at you positivity. Be sure to check out the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel. Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube. You'll see a whole bunch of video highlights from our shows.
Be sure to subscribe so you never miss our very best Fox Sports Radio videos on YouTube. Well, coming up next, we got more NBA on the way. We have a doll of a story to tell you about a doll. Oh, we got a dollar. I'll tell you about the NBA.
Let's go.
That's next right here, and it will be kenough for all of us, Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. It is Jason Cole. He is on Twitter at Jason Cole sixty two.
That I just found out the number Jason Cole sixty two because it was the average of his test scores when he was at Stanford.
How about that? So that's why Jason Cole sixty two. Now what's happening man?
How are you?
We've got robot Jason Cole yeah, well maybe maybe it's sixty two percent. The connection rate from his phone to us here, that's at sixty two That sounds about on Twitter.
Uh.
J cole ganis trying out.
You guys. Okay, yeah, no, like but jets so dude, we mean like connect again? Is that what we're saying?
No, no, no, I think it's not better now you said you sound better? Now?
All right, tysher, don't don't play the music. Love the song, don't play the music that might be messing the connection.
Stop. Don't play that you playing the song, don't play the music. All right? How are you, buddy? You're good.
I'm great. What's going on?
We're great. We're getting ready for the draft. We're watching Shadora Sanders allegedly fall through the NFL draft like he's Aaron Rodgers. I mean, we had a lot of stuff to watch here.
I think Sanders was never really that high pick to begin with, and that we all just assumed who's going to go that high in the draft. I do always love the you know, people follow in the draft. It's like, no, no, he's never that high to begin with. Teams were basically telling the idea that he was going to go that high. Look, Chadura is a good quarterback. He's not what everybody thinks just because he Dion's kid. And I think he's a pretty average player. I mean, and when you watch him, boy, do I get a real sense of Jameis Winston. I really do. I got a real sense of, Yeah, there's some talent there. I just don't think that it's going to be something really truly special.
Well, hey, Jameis Winston does what very few people could do. He keeps both teams in the game, Jacole. I mean, it's one thing to have to do to lead your team to victory, but to lead your team to potential victory while you keep the other team in line for potential victory, that's a lot to do.
If you count all of the touchdown pounds, this is that Damus Winston has thrown, including the ones to the other team. He's probably he's probably on face for the NFL record.
Okay, countdown, count down to Peyton, right, we just keep axing him out.
No, that counts, but it was to the other team. No, if that counts, it's a touchdown.
It's Brady, But that's okay, Yeah, it's countdown to Braider.
Yeah, we get the antithesis of thing.
Okay, so if I said to you, cam Ward will go in the top two, maybe number one overall is Shador Sanders.
The next guy off the board is Jackson Dart. The next guy off the board, Like, where's the next quarterback go?
No, I think it's should quarterback come off the board? But I think it's like fifteen, maybe twenty. I just just have this suspicion that it's it's gonna it's gonna take a while because he's just he's a good player and and and he's that he's not great. I mean he's I mean, he doesn't have an overwhelming arm, he doesn't have great strength, he's pretty accurate, you know, he's not great in the pocket. He's you know, he's not traffic. But I mean, but that's to say that he still easily can be a first round pick. Like, I'm not saying he's a bad player, it's just he's not what everybody thinks he is. I mean, cam Ward, I always come back to this of a scout that I have a tremendous amount of respect for thinks that Shador is the second round pick on talent and thinks cam Ward is the third round pick, So I think that, you know, I now, I think that Ward is going to go much higher, and he's the guy that everybody wants. But I think that this is just one of the great overrated player you know, players, just because we've got to have quarterbacks to talk about. That's how the draft works. I mean to me, it reminds me a lot of here that E. J. Manuel and Jane Smith came out that Gano has had a nice career. That's a good you know, that's a good, solid player, but he's not is not a overwhelming by any stretch of the imagination.
Yeah, I'm glad I didn't spend a lot on trading cards in twenty thirteen, that's for sure.
Ah, no premium there, all right.
So, since offensive linemen are particularly sexy to talk about on radio in this forma, how about everybody got all excited about the running backs. I tried to point out the fact that the three guys you celebrated moving we actually went to really good teams.
But is it possible that we actually see two guys drafted early in this draft?
Here? J Cole, I think that I've guts in this draft, and who are capable of y'all in the first round at running back, So yes, are you how about that? Now? I think I think that they will drift because that's just the nature of the position. So you're really probably only only going to get to But I think it's those guys are the strength of the draft. Those are the premium players in this draft? Are those guys? I mean, so that that's what should happen, was normal, but you know, the draft does get weighted on need, so running backs inevitably fall, but that those are the best ones of this in this draft, no question about it. Yeah, I think you get to.
Are you still there? We got I got to ask you because I'm serious. Now, is this too much serious football talk for you?
Like, like if we not talked enough about the Cowboy Bees and and and then Jets and and all kinds of because if we need some of that, I feel because you've been really serious the last few minutes.
It has been I don't know why. I just I guess you because I don't really.
I don't know why it is you've been listening to angsty music, be listening to lou Reid, sitting at home with headphones on, going Yeah.
Just one of those of Dirty Boulevard. Just one of those days.
It really is one of those days, I guess because I don't like making fun of I don't like making fun of guys in the in the draft process. You know, there's something there's something about it, like once you get into the league, you're sort of fair game before that, Like I kind of, I kind of I kind of feel bad for guys having to dif through this process because it's so it's so brutal, and I don't know, maybe maybe I mean, so that's that's that's possible, Like it's for me like this is this is the one level where I breakdown and I'm well, that's really unusual for me because I'm not I'm really not that nice person.
All right, Well, that'll help you out here a little because I feel and you know what you you help us, I'll help you out here, you know. The last few weeks, I saw him talk today about how is benching last year changes perspective. Justin Field's very excited. I'm thinking dark Horse wild card for the Jets. That that's what that's that's my mind.
I'm thinking dark Horse wild card and it's going to be something when they win more games this year than did the last two years with Aaron Rodgers.
It never dies, it really never dies. It's just it's a disease.
It really, that's true.
It's it's it's it's almost as bad as being a Cowboys fan, but in the tastes of being a Cowboys fan. It's it's it's really like you're being taken advantage of. It's like it's like when you keep convincing your children that there is a Santa Claus. That's what Cowboys fans are. Death fans are just like they should know better, they really should know better, but they still want to believe. Like that's that's why firemanhead keeps coming back again and again and again. You know, you here, he should know better, he should know better than they have to get up in the ljats, you know, like screaming gestest. He shouldn't have he shouldn't do that anymore. He should just let it go. But somehow he's alluded himself into it. But it's not. You know, but Cowboys fans are really I guess they're the ones who are children. They're the ones believing in Santa Claus.
Well, just so you know, I tell all the players I'm Santa Claus. I come down the chimney. They get their Christmas game checks. I go back up and and we go from house to Allison that Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Tony Romo and Comment and Cuban. We go and everybody everybody gets there checks. I gotta slide right down in the chimney because I'm fitting enough. I get all the way down to the bottom. You have a little bit of eggnogs, and then get back in your back up, get backed.
Up to the sled.
That's right, honey too. It's a it's a great stocking al Moore Bees produced to put that weights down with it. So you gotta have used the nails. You can't. You got god go nails pulled it up there, you can't. They'll just come right out because the honey is so many much heavier.
That.
That's what you gotta do. You gotta use nails on the on the on that man. But just but don't don't be big holes because you have repair all that stuff with the two toothpaste and everything like that, you know what I'm saying. And that painted over again, and then it just looks you know, it just looks bad. You don't want to happen.
He is a Hallmark movie NFL analyst sprapped up in one. It is Jason Cole. He's ready for that Bill's Holiday movie coming this fall. Come on.
He's on Twitter at Jason Call sixty two as always, Buddy, thanks so much.
We'll talk to you next week.
Have fun Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon, Live from the Ti rag dot com studios, where tonight was about one story in the NBA, Luca Doncis's triumphant returned to the Mavericks to Dallas. He goes for forty five points. I thought he was going to score ninety. The Lakers roll over the MAVs one twelve ninety seven. Emotional night for Luca. Emotional night talking about it following the game. Nobody better to break it down with the longtime front of the show NBA insider. Check him out on substack Twitter at the Steinline.
Who is justin.
You've just done like a nine hour postgame show breaking this down, Mark, and you still made time for us.
Thank you very much.
Don't worry.
I saved all the good stuff.
For you, all right, So if I say to you, you take tonight in its totality, what you saw, what was your big takeaway from tonight?
I thought it was going to be unlike any game I've ever seen, any revenge game I've ever seen, and it definitely was. It just was very strange, weird and hard to describe because like the one thing we knew, the one lock was, we knew Luca was going to be showered with love, but I think the love was even stronger than anticipated. And then just the way the crowd was rooting for him, I mean, and you just it just you don't see it happen that way. But again, this situation is so different than that, it probably should be a different scene, in something different than Like I think we've talked about this. This was not going to be like Lebron going back to clear Lynd or Shaquille O'Neal going back to Orlando, or Kevin Durant.
Going back to Oklahoma City, like.
The player chose the change in all those circumstances, and this was a team making a decision. Fans have been unhappy with it for two months since it happened, and you know, this was finally their chance to show Luca how much they love him and miss him and our heartbroken, and it was it was I mean, it was emotional from the jump. I mean, you guys all saw the way Luca reacted to that video, and it was it was powerful. It was powerful being there.
You know, you brought up a really interesting thing on social media tonight when you quote tweeted Trey Young, who puts the video, who put up a video a copy of the video of him before the game and Luca crying saying he was never going to leave. Now, obviously this trade was made because you know, there was the back and forth between the Mavericks and Luca.
Was he going to change?
Were they going to be able to sign him? Did he really want to stay? Luca even said after the trade all I always knew it was going to end this way. But then I watch a night like tonight and I see the outpouring from the fans and I see Luca, and I go, could they really have gotten this done?
Like?
Could they have gotten past everything and gotten it when it really came down to it, where Luca in the off season, here's an extension and it's going to work out from both sides, Like could they really have figured out their differences, because I see what's happened tonight and I go, I think they might have been able.
To Well, you know, Luca thought he was going to be a math for life. And the reason that I retweeted that was because I found it now. Look, Trey Young obviously has his own connection to Luca because they were traded for each other on Draft night. But I thought it was fascinating that Trey, as a fellow player, was watching this, and you know his reaction was the same as mine, is that when you watched how hard, how emotional that was for Luca to watch that tribute video and literally crying on the bench, like he didn't want to leave. He didn't want to trade. He said it in his farewell letter to Dallas when the trade happened, that he thought he was going to be in Dallas for his whole career. But like, you know, you could see it through the emotions tonight, like he never wanted to be traded. There was never any doubt from the Donchets side he was going to sign that super Max contract this summer. It was the Mavericks who decided they didn't want to offer it. It was the Mavericks, who oh, you know, really, since the finals and the way this season played out, they decided that they didn't want him to be their franchise player anymore. So, Yes, for their differences and tensions over the years, did the Mavericks operate with this fear in their heads that he might someday try to force his way out. Yes, those things are true. But I think from the Donchets perspective, he wanted to sign that contract here, he never wanted to be traded. And you know, it's still early enough in the process that this is in a lot of ways, you know, still home for him. But then I think you saw during the game like once he gets and he's just going to keep getting more and more past it, more and more comfortable with this change, and he's only going to play better.
I think so.
And I think we saw tonight like once he got past the emotion, he just progressively became more of a monster out there.
Yeah, nothing else, Mark, we saw where the jump shot was. It was hanging out in Dallas just waiting for him to come back and claim it. But crazy forty eight hours for the Lakers because we have that highly emotional, crazy game against Oklahoma City where he gets ejected and then you're able to go straight twenty four hours in. I think that was a big help. He's just like, all right, let's just go and get this done too. While we're at it.
Well, there's a couple of things that work. If Luca's got the three ball working, like he is just a nightmare for any defense. Like when the three ball is going, he literally becomes unguardable. And obviously first half six of eight from three and thirty one point by.
O.
But I just you know, he didn't do it tonight with a lot of fury, Like I think a lot of people expected him to be like screaming at the MAVs bench like we saw for that glimpse the first time when the team's played in LA and just really playing with an edge. But he was very controlled. Like on our postgame show on on DLS, MAVs, you know, we did like more than an you know, we went way long on our post game show, and you know, Kevin Gray, host of our show, called it surgical, and that was a perfect word. I mean, he was surgical tonight. And when Lebron, you know, Lebron really had it going in the fourth quarter and Luca just you know, let Lebron roll and then Luca made that circus reverse layup and that gave him the chance to kind of finish the game with a flourish and then at the end, I mean the script was just you know, it was just perfect for you know, if this is what you were looking for. You know, JJ Reddick leaves him in out for amount of time, out, commits a foul, gets to go, you know, walk off the court to a standing ovation and then those fans just turn their ire at Nico Harrison again to close out to night. And then if Luca got to put a beautiful bow on what was I think a really satisfying night for him.
You know, we talked about this mark is that you know, it's almost like we watched the Mavericks and their fans. You know, you're in the morning process of still losing Luca, and a night like tonight is really cathartic. And I feel like this is where the Mavericks can now say, Okay, we knew we had to get past this game and fans were going to be mad, but here they are yelling at their TVs, yelling at the game, cheering for Luca yelling fire Nico. I feel like this is like the silver lining for the Mavericks, where it's okay, now we can move forward and still the name on the front of the jerseys bigger than name on the back, and we can get busy this summer with signing bigger players, and we can kind of bring this controversy, you know, you know, tear it down from the studs and we can kind of start over again. So feel like now at least the Mavericks can can like move forward past this. They needed this game.
I mean, look that all that all would sound nice and a brochure, but no, that's that's wow, it's no, because the thing is, like, you know, I've been calling this the seventy seven Stages of Grief, and obviously that's obviously that's a that's a play on Luca's number, but it's also to convey the Mavericks have such a long road to anything resembling what you're describing, because look, Hyrie Irving was playing fantastic this season. They don't know how long he's going to need to recover from an ACL surgery. And the Mavericks, okay, they're in the playing tournament maybe they win a playing game, maybe they even win two. Let's let's say they win two playing games. They're not beating Oklahoma City in the first round without Tyrie Irving, no matter how.
Good their big men are.
The Mavericks and the Mavericks fans are about to watch Luka Doncic go on a playoff run and the Lakers look the West. Okayse he's the favorite, but the Lakers are going to be a dangerous team, a team nobody wants to play, and a team really hard to guard with three very dynamic playmakers in Luca Lebron and Austin Reeves. And so mav fans have to just just going through the playoffs and watching Luca in the playoffs with the Lakers is going to be excruciating, you know, And like I said, I just to me it is, so it is. It's really hard to imagine when the Mavericks are going to have happiness again, because look, now, had Anthony Davis not missed eighteen games with an aductor strain, and had Kyrie Irving not sustain the knee injury, and where the Mavericks full strength, maybe maybe your vision could be realized that this team would still be dangerous and good in the playoffs, but they are so far away from having their full team again. I mean, it's gonna be a while.
Guys.
He's Mark stying with us Jason Smith show with me Mike Harmon here from the Tirak dot Com, Fox Sports Radio studios at the Steinlines, where you find him in the Twitter verse. Check him out on substack. Check out everything he's got going NBA Hall of Famer, all of the reporting that he does with us each and every week. We appreciate him stopping by here after what was a busy and emotional evening. Mark, appreciate you. And obviously that Lakers part of the story. The other another head coach fired on a winning squad forty seven wins ahead of tonight for Denver. Yet Michael Malone, don't call him Mike. I was ousted by Denver and then Calvin Booth gets fired.
Too, so there were no winners. Nobody was left standing. What do they do now?
Well, look at this, this is the know. This is a desperate basically, and Josh Kronky, chairman of the Nuggets, whose fathers Stan, is obviously the big money behind the franchise. I mean Josh Coronky came out and said, we had made the decision that we were dismissing both gentlemen at the end of the season. So they've tried to do it now to see if this desperate change can lead the players into us save the season mentality. And you know, the Nuggets just.
Have so many issues.
Jokic has played the best basketball of his life, and they're they're, you know, sputtering to the end of the season and might not even win fifty games despite Jokic being as brilliant as because this team has so many shooting issues, so many depth issues. And you know, obviously I've been wrapped. I mean I've been really wrapped up in you know, previewing Luca's return and covering the you know, I've been writing and covering about this game tonight for days. But I'm fascinated just by the historical aspect of this, because, you know, when Taylor Jenkins got fired with nine games to go, it was the first time ever that a team with a winning record fired a coach with less than ten games to go in a season. And now it's happened again. And the only other time it's happened was back in eighty three when Larry Brown was Larry Brown was ousted with six games to go because he was taking the job at Kansas. He had secretly negotiated to leave the Nets back to the college game with Kansas, but they actually termed that a resignation officially, So when I initially did some research on this, that didn't even come up. But the point is, you never see teams with a winning record make coaching changes this late, and now we've seen it happen twice in the space of two weeks, and it just kind of tells you just like how volatile today's NBA is and how much pressure these teams are facing to try to get stuff done. And so it's just it's it's I think it's really an interesting the climate and coaching is. You know it really it's changing again, Like we just you never see teams make a change this late when they have a winning record. It's very very very rare, rare.
All right, Mark, let me bring this full circle from tonight. You know, a couple hours before the game started tonight, Luca's big return to Dallas, the NBA decides to drop the Oh, we've rescinded Luca's t from the night before. Sorry everybody. Uh, you know, it's great that the NBA admits they're sorry, but wow, nobody gets that moment back.
Mark.
Yeah, and that's why tonight's win was so huge for them, as you said before, because I mean, when you know they could have won that game the way that game was going, and you know, the Lakers just completely you know, their chance of winning disappeared when Luca got talked from.
That game and you can't go back and replay the game. And so, you know, the good news for the I mean, yeah, they're rescinded. Technical I mean, it doesn't too much in the grand scheme. I guess the only real good news for the Lakers is so they only needed a two and two finish to clinch the number three seed, and so they lost the game that Luca got thrown out of they won tonight, so they only need one more win and Houston's basically wrapped up the number two seeds, so they're playing Houston next to Houston even need to push there, guys at this point, So I have to think the Lakers find a way to win one more game and cinch that third seed. But yeah, I mean that if the Lakers missed out on the numbers three seed because they can't win one more game, that rescinded tech ink and to do them much good.
He's on Twitter at the Steinline. That is, at the Steinline after a big night of work. Mark has always appreciate your time. We'll talk to you next week. Man, enjoy the night.
