The Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night, although it didn’t come without a fight as they erased a 20-point fourth quarter deficit to take the lead in the final minute.
With the Lakers leading by two, Luka Doncic drove the lane. Unfortunately, Austin Reaves helped off Kyrie Irving and Doncic found him for a wide-open 3-pointer, which Irving drilled to help earn the victory for Dallas.
Even though Reaves had a solid game with 17 points, six rebounds and six assists and was instrumental during the Lakers’ fourth quarter comeback, leaving Irving open the way he did is something that continued to sit with him after the loss.
“The Kyrie 3 that he hit to go up one. I made a dumb decision and dropped a little to far,” Reaves said. “It was a two-point game and Luka was driving and I just made a bad decision and should’ve fanned out because a two, they tie it instead of go up one. And then we can take the last shot or whatever with the time being what it was at the time. But that’s the one that’ll stick with me because I should know better and do better. But I also know there’s a million other plays in the game that, if they go our way, momentum can build faster. Yeah, that one’s going to bother me a little bit.”
Reaves is as competitive as they come so even though he liked that the Lakers came back in the fourth quarter, he was disappointed that they came up short.
“Any loss sucks. We’re all competitors, and whatever it is that we’re competing. … We have to be better early in games, not to have to put ourselves in those positions. But ultimately, we can look at the whole game. But when you look at the fourth quarter, you see a lot of really good things that we did, the way that we guarded them and just played offensively with the pass. But, nah, really any loss sucks and stings.”
Reaves discusses fourth quarter comebacks
The Lakers have made a habit of these fourth quarter comebacks for far this season and while Reaves views that as a positive, he knows they need to be better in the first three quarters.
“Yeah, that’s just the feeling amongst the team is we’re never out of a game. We have so much talent that honestly, if one person gets rolling, they can rattle off 10 themself and you could take that 20-point lead to 10 or 12 if it’s a 10-2 run or whatever. But we have a talented group. We believe that if we keep plugging and playing in the right way if we’re in those positions, obviously don’t want to be in those positions, but we can make those games, and then once you get it to seven, six, five-point game, anything is possible with the momentum in our direction from coming back that big of a deficit.
“But like I said, we don’t want to continue or put ourselves in that position. We had to be better first half, third quarter. Fourth quarter, I believe we’ve played really well collectively the whole season so we just have to figure out the first three.”
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