The emotion inside the building was impossible to ignore, the crowd oohing and aahing at every crossover, gasping at every shot and desperately trying to will the ball into the basket each time a Laker launched it.
It felt like the playoffs.
It was the first quarter.
The crowd had met the moment, Luka Doncic’s first game against the Dallas Mavericks, the team with whom he built his NBA career, the kind of game that had the attention of people all around the NBA.
The building was hot; Doncic, the main attraction, was cold.