A few days ago, the Dallas Mavericks’ official X account seemingly out of the blue posted an iconic picture featuring Luka Doncic and Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker. The picture showed Doncic smiling at a serious Booker during Game 7 of the second-round series between the Mavericks and Suns in the 2022 NBA Playoffs.
After Doncic was traded from the Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers, Booker responded to the previous X post and clapped back at Dallas.
Kept their word https://t.co/f4szGOQLm4
— Book (@DevinBook) February 2, 2025
Doncic and the Mavericks came out on top over the Suns in decisive fashion in the deciding Game 7. The Slovenian went off for 35 points while shooting 12-of-19 from the field and 6-of-11 from deep, and Dallas punched its ticket to the Western Conference Finals.
Booker and Doncic have seemingly been rivals dating back to earlier on in that playoff series. After the former was hit while driving to the basket in Phoenix’s Game 5 victory, he spent a few seconds on the ground and said “the Luka special” to a fan recording him.
Following that contest, Doncic also could be heard saying “everybody acts tough when they’re up” as he left the court, though it’s not exactly clear if he was talking about Booker.
More recently, Doncic and Booker got into a heated interaction in a regular-season game back in March of 2023. In the waning seconds of the game, Doncic had an easy layup to tie the game up at 128 but misfired. Booker then taunted Doncic over his costly miss, and the two stars went nose to nose before being separated.
Things got heated between Luka and Book 👀 pic.twitter.com/wT3IhISall
— ESPN (@espn) March 5, 2023
Doncic has long been sidelined with a calf injury, so it’s unclear when he will play his first game in a Lakers uniform. He played his last game as a Maverick when Dallas lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Dec. 25.
But the Suns will take on the Lakers for the final time of the 2024-25 regular season on March 16. That will mark a home game for Los Angeles at Crypto.com Arena. The Lakers have an excellent home record of 16-6 so far this season compared to a road record of 12-13.
