{"id":437335,"date":"2025-04-10T07:52:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T05:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=437335"},"modified":"2025-04-10T07:52:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T05:52:36","slug":"luka-doncic-wipes-away-tears-then-stuns-mavericks-in-emotional-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/luka-doncic-wipes-away-tears-then-stuns-mavericks-in-emotional-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic wipes away tears, then stuns Mavericks in emotional return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\" data-start=\"330\" data-end=\"682\"><strong data-start=\"345\" data-end=\"360\">Luka Doncic<\/strong> made a powerful return to <strong data-start=\"387\" data-end=\"397\">Dallas<\/strong>, delivering 45 points in a dominant performance that pushed the <strong data-start=\"462\" data-end=\"484\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/strong> to a 112-97 win and secured a playoff spot. The Slovenian star, honored by his former team with a touching tribute video, fought back tears as he stepped onto the court where he spent 6\u00bd seasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"684\" data-end=\"946\">Despite the emotion, Doncic remained locked in, torching the <strong data-start=\"745\" data-end=\"758\">Mavericks<\/strong> with 16-of-28 shooting, including 7-of-10 from three, alongside 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals. \u201cIt was so many emotions\u2026 but it was really nice to feel that support,\u201d Doncic said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"948\" data-end=\"1227\">Throughout the night, angry chants of \u201c<strong data-start=\"987\" data-end=\"1001\">Fire Nico!<\/strong>\u201d echoed across the arena, directed at Dallas GM <strong data-start=\"1050\" data-end=\"1067\">Nico Harrison<\/strong>, architect of the controversial trade. But Doncic had the final word, walking off to cheers, hugs, and a standing ovation from the crowd he once called home.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t know how I did it. Because when I was watching that video, I was like, &#8216;There&#8217;s no way I&#8217;m playing this game.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Luka Doncic after dropping 45 PTS in his emotional return to Dallas with the Lakers \u2764\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dJb1GFCT0n\">pic.twitter.com\/dJb1GFCT0n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 ESPN (@espn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/espn\/status\/1910154708691410992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"649\" data-end=\"967\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Luka Doncic is every Dallas Mavericks\u2019 Fan right now. He loves Dallas and Dallas loves him back. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6Nu8wItqxe\">pic.twitter.com\/6Nu8wItqxe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RGIII\/status\/1910123129613279589?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"969\" data-end=\"1251\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"und\">Luka Don\u010di\u0107 exits to a standing ovation in his return to Dallas \ud83d\udc4f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Q0RZl1OXkX\">pic.twitter.com\/Q0RZl1OXkX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ESPNNBA\/status\/1910152861880627465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Nico Harrison listening to the \u201cFire Nico\u201d chants\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wgeiApWx29\">pic.twitter.com\/wgeiApWx29<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Landon Thomas (@sixfivelando) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sixfivelando\/status\/1910133810215219424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 10, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in Dallas for the first time since the blockbuster trade, Luka Doncic delivered a 45-point masterpiece to lead the Lakers to the playoffs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":372083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[399],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[187],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-437335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","typology-video"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/02\/Los-Angeles-Lakers.jpg","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437335"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=437335"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=437335"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=437335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}