Recent winners of the In-Season Tournament, the Lakers saw their return to the regular season spoiled this Tuesday by the Mavericks. A surprising player from Dallas had decided to pull out all the stops for the occasion, to which LeBron James reacted.

With a trophy already in their pocket, they can be satisfied with their start to the season. However, the Lakers were somewhat disillusioned with their return to business following their victory in the In-Season Tournament.

Traveling this Tuesday in Dallas, they did not manage to win the shock against the Mavericks (125-127). A suspenseful encounter which saw the stars of both camps shine… but not only that.

Thus, despite the efforts of LeBron James (33 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds) and Anthony Davis (37 points, 11 rebounds), it was Luka Doncic and his gang who ended up winning. Author of 33 points and 17 caviars, the Slovenian did not emerge as the only hero of this match on the Texan side.

In the absence of Kyrie Irving, a former forgotten hope took the opportunity to emerge from the shadows, namely… Dante Exum.

LeBron James and the Lakers kneel in front of Dante Exum

Thanks to his 26 points and his 7 three-point baskets (!), Exum allowed his team to win against the Lakers. This, while he had so far only planted… 8 shots from distance this season. It was well worth LeBron’s praise afterwards:

LeBron James: We applied our game plan and we must comply with the result. Dante had his best career 3-point performance, and we can only take our hats off to him.

Also powerless in the face of the exploits of the Australian, 5th pick of the 2014 Draft, Darvin Ham and Austin Reaves joined the King’s comments and praised this performance that came out of nowhere:

Darvin Ham: To be able to put several defenders on Luka, you necessarily have to leave other players more free. The numbers led us to believe that Dante could be one of these players, but he is a real pro.

He’s a hell of a player. Tonight was his night. In this league, marksmanship plays a big role, and it just so happened that he was going all out in this match. Between his success from afar, that of Luka and that of (Grant) Williams, it was incredible. Finishing 17/26 behind the arc is huge. All that while having to try to contain Luka’s genius was a lot.

Austin Reaves: Any time you play against such a talented player, passer and scorer like Luka, it’s tough. That’s the challenge when you have a guy like that on the opposing team that you’re trying to slow down.

As for Exum, we have to take our hats off to him. Before the match, we knew he wasn’t very skilled at 3 points and tonight, he scored 7. So we have to take our hats off to him and move forward.

The duel at the top between the Mavericks and the Lakers proved worthy of expectations. Unfortunately for LeBron James and his family, Luka Doncic had Dante Exum at his side, who decided to release one of the best games of his NBA career.