Luka Doncic Trade Affects Major College Basketball Matchup<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 acquisition of Luka Doncic has been one of the biggest sports stories of the week.<\/p>\n
The Lakers secured the 25-year-old guard, who finished third in MVP voting last season, by trading 10-time NBA All-Star Anthony Davis, role player Max Christie, and just one draft pick to Dallas. This trade has raised questions among fans about how much longer Dallas general manager Nico Harrison will remain with the team.<\/p>\n
While there is no confirmed date for Doncic\u2019s Lakers debut, ESPN\u2019s reshuffling of both college basketball and NBA games might hint at when he will play. According to ESPN\u2019s PR social media page, Saturday’s Lakers-Pacers game wasn\u2019t originally scheduled to air on ESPN. However, with reports suggesting Doncic could debut on Saturday, ESPN swapped the Utah Jazz vs. Phoenix Suns game to air the Lakers\u2019 matchup instead.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the Lakers-Pacers game pushed back one of the biggest college basketball games of the year, featuring No. 1 Auburn Tigers (21-1) against No. 6 Florida Gators (19-3). The rematch of last year\u2019s SEC Tournament final was moved to ESPN2 after initially being scheduled for ESPN.<\/p>\n
This change might have gone unnoticed by many if not for ESPN\u2019s schedule announcement earlier in the week, which highlighted the college basketball matchup as a major event for the weekend.<\/p>\n
The teams haven\u2019t faced off since Auburn defeated the Gators 86-67 in Nashville last March. Historically, they\u2019ve been evenly matched, with each team winning five of the last 10 encounters. However, ESPN’s Matchup Predictor gives Auburn an 82.1% chance of winning.<\/p>\n
As for the game replacing the marquee college basketball showdown, fans will be disappointed if Doncic doesn’t debut. For now, the basketball world willhave to wait.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Luka Doncic Trade Affects Major College Basketball Matchup The Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 acquisition of Luka Doncic has been one of the biggest sports stories of the week. The Lakers secured the 25-year-old guard, who finished third in MVP voting last season, by trading 10-time NBA All-Star Anthony Davis, role player Max Christie, and just one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2586,246],"tags":[488],"class_list":["post-24404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lakers","category-nba","tag-luka-doncic"],"yoast_head":"\n