No one should overreact to NBA preseason games. The Dallas Mavericks played their first game – a 116-63 win on Saturday – but it came against a non-NBA team, the Beijing Ducks. We’re still weeks away from Real Basketball, after all. Taking any results from late September and projecting them across an entire season is a fool’s errand. Who among us would do something like that? Who would be so rash? Surely, it could be none of us – all being smart and well-adjusted basketball fans.



Unrelated: Luka Doncic will be the greatest basketball player in the history of the universe.



In all seriousness, Doncic’s preseason debut was sparkling. Even with the necessary caveat that he was playing against Chinese Basketball Association defenders, the Slovenian rookie was the best Maverick on the floor Saturday, playing a team-high 30 minutes and scoring 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Add to that: six rebounds, two assists, three...