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.

T he Boston Celtics longtime rival, the Los Angeles Lakers, drastically altered the course of the NBA before the trade deadline expired, landing star guard Luka Doncic from the Da

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.