Luka Dončić and Link's commercial shoot went very smoothly. Of course, it ended with Luka Dončić taking ten thousand points of emotional damage.
In Memphis, Luka Dončić learned for the first time what it meant when people said, "The old man is still the old man."
Maybe elsewhere, he was a rookie whose popularity rivaled that of a superstar.
But in Memphis, he really was just a rookie.
Still, Link treated Luka Dončić to dinner that night, and he was far kinder than he had been during the day.
That made Luka Dončić think that what Link had said to him earlier was only a joke.
"It's too early to be discouraged. Tomorrow night's game will hit you even harder than this."
Even now, just thinking about those words sent a chill down Luka Dončić's spine. But seeing how kind Link was over dinner, he did not take them too seriously and simply assumed Link had been joking.
Speaking of which, the Grizzlies and Mavericks game was also a major matchup.
Although the Mavericks had missed the playoffs for three straight seasons, and Luka Dončić was only in his second year—far from the age where he could lead a team into a full-on charge.
After all, Wiggins and Towns, two first overall picks, had been together for five years and still had not gotten the Timberwolves off the ground.
But this season, the Mavericks had put together a remarkably strong record. At 5–3 so far, they had yet to fall out of the top eight in the Western Conference.
And of their three losses, one against the Trail Blazers had not been decided until the final second.
Another against the Lakers had also gone down to the wire before they finally fell short.
In short, the Mavericks had shown this