LeBron James

and

Anthony Davis

joined forces this Friday in the Los Angeles Lakers comfortable victory over the Dallas Mavericks of Luka Doncic, who could not lead his team to victory in the most outstanding game of the special day of the NBA for the day of Christmas.

Marc Gasol

, who had an unfortunate debut with the Los Angeles team on Tuesday, was very active in the paint with 9 rebounds and also added 2 points in the 19 minutes he played.

The Spanish pivot came out again in the starting five.

James (22 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds) and Davis (28 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists) led some unstoppable Lakers on offense who scored their first win of the season and thus made up for Tuesday's loss against their neighbors and rivals the Los Angeles Clippers.

For his part, Doncic was excellent with 27 points (9 of 19 in shooting), 7 assists and 4 rebounds, but he was very alone in the attack of some Mavericks who have started the season with their left foot after losing their first two games .

James-Doncic, face to face

The duel between James and Doncic was the main attraction of this meeting and the Slovenian did not wrinkle since from the beginning he was paired in defense with the Lakers star.

The winners of the title in the "bubble" of Orlando (USA) came out plugged and, with a very aggressive Davis facing the basket (7 points in the first five minutes), they opened the first gap on the scoreboard (18- 12).

The Mavericks did not lose patience and stayed close to the purple and gold at the end of the first quarter (33-30) thanks to the contribution of Doncic and

Finney-Smith

(8 points per head in that quarter).

The success of both teams facing the basket (more than 50% effectiveness in shots to the basket) continued in the second quarter, where the Lakers' reserves took a step forward.

The intensity of

Harrell

in the paint and the threat from the perimeter of

Morris

and

Caruso

helped the Lakers take off (54-41).

The Texan team tried to respond with a 1-9 partial, but Davis (18 points and 6 rebounds at halftime) and James (14 points and 7 assists) submitted a misguided Doncic in the shot (11 points, 3 of 10) who saw the Lakers go to the locker room with a notable advantage after a triple in the last second by

Kuzma

(69-57).

The script did not change excessively in the beginning of the second half.

Dallas poor defense

The Lakers then achieved their maximum advantage so far (80-63) and the Mavericks, short of fang in defense all night (they conceded 17 offensive rebounds), held on to the game thanks to a willful Doncic (12 points in the third fourth).

However,

Schroder

and Harrell, two of the Lakers' most outstanding additions for this new season, kept their new team ahead and without excessive difficulties before the last twelve minutes (99-85).

Finally, the Lakers took advantage of Doncic's rest minutes at the start of the fourth quarter to consolidate a difference (104-87) that the Mavericks could no longer counteract.

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