Game 80: Los Angeles Lakers (48-31) vs. Dallas Mavericks (38-41)

[Chicagojk]

Three things:

1) If they really want to show Luka love and respect this evening, the absolute #1 way for ownership to do it would be to fire Nico at 6:15 pm and announce it in the AAC just before the starting lineups are introduced.

2) Of course we're all Laker fans this evening. Not necessarily out of Luka love and Nico hate, but moreso because it's in the Mavs' interest to lose as many of the last three games as they can, even though they already screwed the pooch by winning too many.

3) Not sure whether or not I believe Kidd had involvement in the Luka trade, but if he did, you know what his instructions to his team are going to be before the game this evening:

"Sweep the leg."

Kidd knew.  I am almost sure of it.  I have no intel or anything.  Nico and Kidd are really close.  There is no doubt Kidd knew Nico was considering trading Luka and I am sure ok'd on certain players he wanted.  Whether he wanted Luka traded is another issue.    He may not have found out until right after the trade happened, but he surely knew things were going on.    Luka knows this as well.  I expect Luka totally ignores him tonight after the game as well.

I will say Kidd knew how big this trade was right from the start. You could see it in that press conference. It still shocks me that apparantly Nico didn't. Although less shocked after seeing his actions over the past two months.