Luka Doncic burying 3-pointers, berating referees, and throwing no-look passes in a L.A. Lakers No. 77 jersey was more than enough to send a Mavericks fan back to the fridge for another beer, a second bowl of ice cream, or straight to the medicine cabinet for some “help.”

Doncic’s first game against his old team was one of those few times when the final score meant nothing.

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The Mavericks could have won by 1, 11, or 111 on Tuesday night and it was nothing but pain for the 99.8 percent of people who support this team; Tuesday night just about Luka, and the Stages of Grief.

Denial, anger, bargaining and depression may still linger, but watching Luka and the Lakers play the Mavericks pushes all Mavs fans into the “Acceptance” phase.

Probably should just go ahead and put $50 on “Anger” winning this one for the next few months, especially after Doncic recorded his first triple-double with the Lakers, as they pulled away late to win a good game, 107-99.

Doncic scored 19 points with 15 rebounds, 12 assists and three steals. He scored, or assisted, on 51 of the Lakers’ 107 points.

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The game was tied at 91 with a little more than 5 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but the Mavericks lack of scorers, and defenders at the rim, finally got ‘em.

“I don’t how to explain it. Just different. I can’t even explain it,” Doncic told the TNT crew after the game. “I can’t wait to go to sleep, honestly.”

Mavericks fans keep going back to sleep in the hopes of when they wake up this trade never happened.

What happened on Tuesday night was not supposed to ever happen, but it did and it illustrated yet again how special Dirk Nowitzki was/is for the Dallas Mavericks.

The Mavericks traded for Luka on draft night to be their Dirk 2.0. The concept was a dream, and terribly unfair to Doncic.

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So many things have to break right for a player to be Dirk; health, talent, interest, production all have to be aligned with management for more than 10 years.

Had Mark Cuban still either owned the team, or had any power with the franchise, Luka may have been Dirk 2.0.

Luka did not have Dirk’s sense of humor, or a level of humility that endeared him to the world. Luka was more in the mold of the traditional NBA super star prima donna; he knew he had the keys, and he wanted to drive.

Cuban was perfectly OK with that, whereas current GM Nico Harrison and owner Patrick Dumont felt no such loyalties.

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Dirk made a lot of people forget that not just good, or average, players move on but so do the very best of who ever played.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played for two teams, the same number as Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Karl Malone, Oscar Robertson, and Chris Mullin; Dwayne Wade played for three teams, just like Patrick Ewing, Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, while Kevin Durant is on his fourth.

Doncic was not supposed to be on that list. He was supposed to be on the list with Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, John Stockton, Bill Russell, Reggie Miller, Tim Duncan, Jerry West, Isiah Thomas and the select few other Hall of Famers who spent their entire careers with one franchise.

Luka’s No. 77 jersey was supposed to one day hang in the rafters at whatever building the Mavericks call home.

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He was going to be a statue guy; it was only a matter of when he won the Mavericks’ second ever NBA MVP award, not to mention the team’s second NBA title.

Dirk was the first to do this for the Mavericks, and Luka was going to be the second. With Cuban running the team, the Mavs were committed to that plan, and seeing it through.

Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic is a reality because the GM, and the owner, of the Mavericks didn’t have the patience, or the belief, that he would do what Dirk did.

We will never know, and because of that a lot of Mavericks fans will remain angry rather than accept it.