The Los Angeles Lakers face the Dallas Mavericks tonight at 7:30 p.m., which means Luka Doncic is returning to Dallas to face his former team. It also means Anthony Davis is facing his old team, which overall could bring some bad blood between the two teams as well as among the fans.

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According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, there has already been some form of negativity between the Lakers players involved in the blockbuster trade and Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka.

While former Lakers guard Max Christie gave Pelinka a kind reception, Anthony Davis was the contrary.

Davis supposedly walked towards the tunnel, seemingly giving Pelinka the cold shoulder rather than interacting with him.

Tonight’s matchup between the two teams will be much more about the off-the-court storylines, with the Lakers sitting in the third seed at 48-31 while the Mavericks are below .500 and sitting in the 10th seed in the West, seemingly locked into a play-in tournament spot.

Both teams have three games left in the season, with not a ton of room to maneuver in the standings. The Lakers could fall as low as the eighth seed, but can’t jump any higher than third, with the Houston Rockets four games ahead of them for the second seed with three games of their own remaining.

The Mavericks are three games ahead of the 11th-seeded Phoenix Suns, but one game behind the Sacramento Kings for the ninth seed. That makes tonight’s game way more about pride and even petty revenge than the actual standings.

While Anthony Davis himself seems to still be upset about the trade and could be in for a huge game, all eyes are on Luka Doncic, who is returning to Dallas for the first time. While pushing to lock up the third seed is the main motivation for the team, tonight’s game will be mainly about showing the Mavericks made a huge mistake in letting Doncic go.

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The first few minutes of the game will tell a lot about the intensity of the rest of game. The atmosphere could feel like a playoff game given the extra motivation of some of the top players playing in the game.

It will be interesting to see what storylines are produced from the outcome of this game. If Anthony Davis uses his own motivation to lead the Mavericks to victory and spoil the Lakers’ important night, he could show that both teams made a mistake in exchanging stars, not just the Mavericks.

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