Watch: Luka Doncic dagger spoils Victor Wembanyama's NBA debut

Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs led 117-115 with 2:34 left to play, but the Dallas Mavericks closed the game on an 11-2 run, thanks to their All-Star guards. 

Doncic had a three-point play and the stepback dagger three that clinched it, part of his 33-point triple-double. Kyrie Irving delivered a finger-roll layup and a three off a sweet Doncic pass, and finished with 22 points.

The Spurs' No. 1 pick had a slow start in his regular-season debut, picking up his fifth foul at the start of the fourth quarter. But he showed the home crowd his massive potential when he returned to the game with seven minutes remaining, and scored nine of his 15 points in a three-minute stretch.

He electrified the crowd when he dunked through contact for the and-one, though he missed the subsequent free throw.

Then Wembanyama evoked former Spur Tim Duncan with a smooth wing jumper to tie the game.

Earlier, Wembanyama got the first of what should be many, many blocks in his NBA career, coming out of nowhere to stuff Irving.

Wembanyama is already impressing his home fans, from dunks to threes to windmill dunks during warmups.

Overall, it was a solid debut, though Wemby made the expected rookie mistakes of fouling too much. But his teammates also should have looked for him more down the stretch, especially after his scoring explosion.

There was also another big man making his NBA debut, the Mavericks' Dereck Lively II, who had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Doncic found him for a number of dunks.

Doncic was so excited about the rookie's performance after the game that he dropped an f-bomb on live TV.

It was the first game of what may be a long Texas rivalry between Doncic and Wembanyama. And maybe Wembanyama and Lively as well.