Did the Dallas Mavericks trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers make a Boston Celtics repeat title more likely? The deal shook the NBA down to its foundations, to the point where fans, analysts and even players were trying to see if they had been fooled by a fake report.

Doncic, who had dragged an otherwise unremarkable Mavericks team through the Western Conference, became the face of their failure. Dallas coach Jason Kidd was forced to come out and defend his maligned star, even though without Doncic, the Mavericks were a faded Kyrie Irving and a bunch of role players.

Anthony Davis, who the Mavs received in their trade for Doncic, had an impressive first half in his debut for Dallas on Saturday before leaving the contest with an injury.