Claire De Lune
Appearances
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
Well, let's talk about their ceiling this year. The Mark Williams trade, it looks like it's going to be rescinded, although the news did come out yesterday that the Hornets are going to maybe try to block that. We'll see if they have success. But we were pretty high on that trade, S&I were. We thought that it really – it put –
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
But, you know, already without Anthony Davis after, you know, almost one game. And obviously they traded away Maxi Klaba.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
a championship ceiling on this team because uh it's such a perfect fit but you know obviously jackson hayes is a bit of a drop off from from mark williams maybe they're gonna hit the buyout market and find a center but yeah i want to know from you you know what do you think this team's ceiling is this season realistically
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
So luckily, Dwight Powell, still a Maverick. But we got to talk about what happened at the game. The Mavericks. We're doing the Jumbotron thing, and they find a guy in the crowd, and he mouths on the Jumbotron, fire Nico. Of course, Nico Harrison, the Mavericks GM who everyone's blaming for trading away Luka Doncic. We had the huge protest at the arena, but the arena was packed. Fans were there.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
Well, I think that that's a pretty good place to stop. I mean, look, Luca is the biggest story. Luca to the Lakers is the biggest story since I started covering the NBA. So we're going to be doing this for the rest of the season for sure. Our head is not going to stop spinning. until the tables stop crashing at crypto.com. Claire the Rune, you guys can read her at The Guardian.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
Go and check her out. She does a really great job covering the NBA. Claire, thank you so much for hanging around while they clean up and joining us on the show. That's going to do it for us today. For Claire, for S. Barahedi, I'm Dave Dufour, and this has been the NBA Daily. Thanks for waking up with us.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
They were loud. They seemed like they were into the game. Pretty great. Great crowd, too. Yeah. Yeah. So it's kind of weird. A couple of fans were actually ejected. The one fan who mouths fire Nico on the Jumbotron and another fan who apparently was wearing a T-shirt. And it took a while for the Mavericks to, you know, answer issue a statement. But as you have their statement in front of you.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
Well, I'm not done with how bad it is because after the game, Jason Kidd just did not address the media.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
You know, I can't remember that happening at any point with a head coach.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. The Dallas Mavericks are kind of on a speed run right now. I mean, if you think about this, two weeks ago, We were talking about the Mavericks. If they're healthy, this is a team that has a chance to make the finals again. We thought that they matched up really, really well against the Thunder. We just hadn't seen them healthy. And now, all of a sudden, it's... I don't know.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
Are they trying to tank... their fandom? Are they trying to make everyone in Dallas angry? I'm not sure what the motivation here is.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
Good morning, S. Before we get started, guys, I wanted to tell you guys about Connection Sports Edition, a new game for sports fans from The Athletic. S, you told me you had a chance to give it a test drive. It's a daily dose of trivia, and apparently it's a lot of fun.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
Well, it's just such a weird position to be in because it really like you you just sent away this generational talent that your fan base was very connected to. Yeah. And now you're responding. You know, you just kind of have to eat this one. You know, I mean, this is part of what the paycheck is for. Right. Right. You have to eat it. You've got to sit there.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
You've got to show up to the press conference. You've got to answer for it. Hey, even Dirk is Dirk is not there.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
Yes, I should note, team owner or team governor Patrick DeMont was there and booed any time he was shown walking to his seat. So, I mean, look, it's not great if you're a Mavericks fan, and frankly – This is very weird. So this is a developing story that we'll continue to follow, obviously. And as you mentioned, they lost Dirk.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
Dirk didn't show up for Anthony Davis's debut, but Dirk was out in L.A. for a Luca showing up, you know, Showtime Lakers. And, you know, hey, I just want to we're going to talk with Claire DeLune after the break. And so, you know, she's there and kind of talk with the vibes. But just quickly about the game. Look, they're playing the jazz, so they're just getting their cardio in. But yeah.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
You know, and Luka had a minutes restriction, but you can see the vision. I mean, listen, man, it's it's you're taking LeBron James, one of the greatest basketball players ever play. And you're putting him with Luka Doncic, who is this childhood prodigy who we all expect to be one of the greatest ever. And what do you know? They were both making plays for other people.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
But when he plays with LeBron and, and with Luca, he gets to be like James Worthy, right? Finish plays, make a play here and there when he has to. And then he gets to run those second units. I mean, there were times where both LeBron and Luca were on the bench and Hey, there's Austin Reeves doing his thing. So everything is just working out great for the Lakers.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
It just somehow seems to happen. We also we got some injury replacements for the All-Star game. Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to miss the All-Star game. Trey Young gets the nod to replace him as it seems fairly uncontroversial. I actually think Trey probably should have made it.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
And then this one was controversial, but Anthony Davis, obviously, as we mentioned, he's going to be out for a few weeks, maybe a month with that abdominal strain. Kyrie Irving. So they went one for one. They named Kyrie Irving as the replacement. And a lot of people were upset by this because it seemed like Damanis Sabonis should have been the next man in.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
But the truth is, Kyrie also had a good case for an all-star season. I think if anybody there's a beef with, it should be maybe James Harden.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
Guys, stick around after the break. We got Claire DeLune from The Guardian to talk about the vibes, the atmosphere, and what it was like to be in the building for Luka's debut in La La Land. Well, Luka made his debut and the Lakers really know how to make you feel like you're, you know, watching a cinematic experience. I mean, they make Luka Doncic look like a star.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
They laid out these t-shirts, asked, you see this? Like, it was kind of crazy. It was awesome. Claire DeLune, national NBA writer for the Guardian, was in the building for us. So she's like our eyes and ears on the ground tonight. First of all, welcome to the show. You're making your debut here. I know. Second, what was it like in the building? Look cool on TV.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
That's big news. We got that today. You guys can check that out at theathletic.com slash connections. So go and do that. Normally on a day like this, we would be just starting to show hot and heavy talking about Luka Doncic, you know, Laker. But we got to go to his old team. The Dallas Mavericks. Number one, they were involved in kind of a crazy game against Sacramento Kings.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily. Coming up, Luka is a Laker. Officially, he made his debut. We're going to do a deep dive on that with Claire DeLune from The Guardian. Something weird is happening in Dallas. We're going to talk about that a little bit. And we've got all-star replacements, which means somebody else got snubbed. Good morning, everybody.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
No, it's OK. So, OK, let's talk about the on court product, because that's that's what we're here for. Luca and LeBron, they both start the game. LeBron throws a lob. Luca comes back the next possession, throws a lob, and you start to see, okay, there's so much playmaking out there. And then Luca hits LeBron with the hit ahead for the transition layup. So cool.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
And that's sort of what this is all about, right? Like we all sort of envisioned, oh, wow, Luca to LeBron is going to be something we'll be watching for the next few months as the Lakers make this push. What do you think about what that offense is going to be capable of?
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
They lost in overtime on a DeMar DeRozan beautiful floater where he just splits the defense with a master class game from him. Yeah. Absolutely. Ugly game down the stretch. They lose Daniel Gafford. So more bad news. They lose him to a knee injury. We're not sure yet how bad that is or, you know, how much time he's going to miss.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
So, obviously, Luca has been injured. He'd been out of the lineup when he was in Dallas for a while. He comes back, looks a little rusty. His first jumper hits front rim, you know, doesn't score a ton of points in the game. You know, the shot's not all the way back yet.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Luka makes Lakers debut | Mavericks give fans the boot
What in his postgame, what did he have to say about how it felt to be like out on the court here after, you know, but basically like eight, nine days after the trade?