Just after midnight on Sunday, the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers pulled off the most shocking trade in league history.
The out-of-nowhere blockbuster, first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania and later confirmed by the Mavericks, sent Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to LA in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round draft pick. The Utah Jazz also received a pair of second-rounders and Lakers guard Jalen Hood-Schifino as part of the deal.
That Davis was traded in the middle of the season (and the middle of the night) was notable enough. LeBron James’ now-former running mate is a 10-time All-Star, four-time All-NBA first-teamer and one-time champion who remains one of the game’s best big men at age 31. But the true stunner was Doncic’s inclusion.
Doncic is, at worst, one of the four or five most talented basketball players on the planet. He’s been first-team All-NBA every season since 2020, was the league’s leading scorer a year ago and just led the Mavericks to their first NBA Finals appearance in 13 years. And, most importantly, he’s only 25 years old (26 on Feb. 28), meaning he should have close to a decade of dominant play still ahead of him.
But the Mavs, led by general manager Nico Harrison, evidently grew disillusioned by Doncic’s ineffective defense — which the Boston Celtics were able to exploit in last season’s Finals — and had misgivings about signing him to the five-year, $345 million supermax extension he would have been eligible for this coming offseason. Injuries and poor conditioning also have been red flags for the Slovenian superstar, who missed 27 of Dallas’ 49 games before the trade.
“We really feel that defense wins championships, and we think the players that we’re bringing in add to the culture, which is important to what (head coach Jason Kidd) and I have been building here from day one,” Harrison told The Dallas Morning News on Sunday. “And then obviously, when you get an All-NBA player who’s also a first-team All-Defensive player (in Davis), we think that’s gonna help us where we need it the most, on the defensive end.”
The GM added: “We really feel like we got ahead of what was going to be a tumultuous summer, him being eligible for the supermax and also a year away from him being able to opt out of any contract. And so we really felt like we got out in front of that.”
Despite those concerns, the defending Western Conference champions did not openly shop Doncic — many league decision-makers reportedly were as stunned by the trade as fans were — and moved him for a relatively modest return, especially considering how willing NBA teams have been to trade massive hauls for proven talents. Less than six months after the New York Knicks gave up five first-round picks for zero-time All-Star Mikal Bridges, the Lakers got Doncic for one player who is very good but aging and injury-prone (Davis); a 21-year-old role player (Christie); and one first-round pick five drafts from now.
The Celtics will be one of the first teams to face the new, Luka-less Mavericks, who will visit TD Garden this Thursday. It’s unclear whether Davis — who will be able to play his preferred power forward position in Dallas alongside Daniel Gafford and the currently injured Derek Lively II — will be available for that game, as he’s recovering from an abdominal muscle injury he suffered Jan. 28.
Boston’s first look at the Luka/LeBron Lakers will come on March 8. LA will continue to be a team to watch ahead of this Thursday’s NBA trade deadline, as dealing Davis left it with a perilously thin frontcourt and further weakened a defense that already ranked in the bottom third of the league. Doncic will raise the Lakers’ offensive ceiling considerably, however, and give them a new, long-term cornerstone to build around once the 40-year-old James departs or retires.
The trade also could, with the proper supplemental moves, make both teams legitimate contenders in the loaded West, though Dallas’ window now is much slimmer with Davis (32 next month) and Kyrie Irving (33 next month) as their centerpieces. Commissioner Adam Silver surely would love nothing more than a Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals featuring James, Doncic and Jayson Tatum.
The Celtics’ longest active streak of consecutive games played came to an end Sunday.
Backup guard Payton Pritchard was ruled out for Boston’s road matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers because of an illness, according to the team. The Celtics added Pritchard to their injury report Sunday morning, initially listing him as questionable.
The DNP was the first for Pritchard in the regular season since April 2023. He appeared in every game for the Celtics last season and their first 49 games of the current campaign — a run of 132 straight regular-season appearances.
The 27-year-old is averaging career highs in minutes, points, rebounds and steals per game and is the midseason favorite for NBA Sixth Man of the Year, ranking first among all bench players in points and plus/minus and second in assists. His 155 made 3-pointers as of Sunday ranked seventh league-wide, trailing only Anthony Edwards, Malik Beasley, Tyler Herro, Donovan Mitchell, Stephen Curry and Tatum.
Pritchard entered Sunday as the only Celtics player who had appeared in every game this season. All others had missed at least three games, including healthy scratches. The rest of Boston’s roster was available against Philadelphia.
The 76ers, who’ve been bludgeoned by injuries throughout the season, were missing multiple starters for the Atlantic Division clash. Joel Embiid, Paul George and Caleb Martin all sat out with injuries, as did reserves Andre Drummond and Eric Gordon.
Embiid and Martin combined for 50 points and 11 made threes in Philly’s 118-114 win in Boston on Christmas Day.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla had no interest in discussing the Doncic trade. “Don’t ask me about the trades,” he told reporters in Philadelphia to open his pregame news conference. “I don’t really care.” … Veteran Celtics big man Al Horford had no such reservations, calling the Doncic/Davis swap “one of the bigger moves in NBA history when it comes to trades and free agents and stuff like that.” Horford told reporters pregame that he’d “put it right up there with when LeBron went to Miami as a free agent.” … The Celtics will close out their three-game road trip Tuesday against the Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs improved to 40-9 on Sunday by destroying the Mavericks 144-101 in a game Cleveland led 91-40 at halftime. The first two Celtics-Cavs meetings this season were decided by a total of seven points, with each team winning at home.