The Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night looking to keep things rolling in the second end of a back-to-back.
Despite it being a back-to-back, LeBron James and Anthony Davis both played for L.A. while Dallas had its two stars in Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving available as well. Ultimately, it was the Mavericks that came out on top despite L.A.’s comeback effort with a 104-101 victory, dropping the Lakers to 9-7 on the year.
Max Christie got the start for the Lakers with Cam Reddish dealing with adductor soreness and got L.A. on the scoreboard with a 3-pointer. The Lakers were missing a lot of easy layups early though and then Grant Williams and Irving made back-to-back triples to get Dallas an early 10-5 lead.
The Lakers eventually responded with five straight of their own to tie it with Taurean Prince connecting on a corner 3, which was good to see given his recent struggles.
Rui Hachimura was the first sub off the bench for the Lakers and quickly got going with five straight points, although Doncic then responded with five straight for Dallas. Things stayed tight throughout the first quarter although the Mavericks eventually took a 29-25 lead into the second.
The Lakers got sloppy to begin the second quarter with James committing a couple turnovers, allowing the Mavericks to build a double-digit lead.
L.A. had trouble guarding the 3-point line as Dallas was hot for most of the second quarter. Davis was doing his part on the other end though, scoring some tough buckets down low to keep the game from getting away.
The Lakers weren’t able to get much else going to end the half though and went into the locker room trailing 62-46.
If the Lakers were going to get back in the game then a run needed to come in the third quarter. Doncic and Irving stayed hot to begin the quarter although the Lakers began chipping away from there with D’Angelo Russell getting going offensively after a quiet first half.
With James and Davis not getting much going offensively and the Lakers continuing to commit some silly turnovers, they weren’t making up much group. Irving drained another corner triple and the Mavericks led comfortably at 91-71 going into the fourth quarter.
James tried to get the Lakers back in it with a three-point play and a triple while Austin Reaves drained one as well, getting the deficit quickly back to 13. That forced a Dallas timeout, although that didn’t slow down Reaves as he had four straight points to cut the Mavericks lead to single digits.
The flood gates started to open from there for the Lakers with Prince and James both connecting from deep and then LeBron making a layup to get it down to just three.
Of course it was Doncic and Irving that helped settle the Mavericks back in with back-to-back buckets to get their lead back to seven.
The Lakers continued to fight though, rattling off five quick points to force another Dallas timeout. Reaves then hit another floater to tie the game at 99 in the final two minutes.
The run didn’t stop there though as after another stop, James tipped one in and the Lakers had their first lead seemingly all night. That was short-live though as Irving drilled a 3 and the Mavericks led by one in the final seconds.
James then turned it over looking for Davis and Irving made a pair at the line. The Lakers had one final chance down three with 2.8 remaining but James missed at the buzzer, resulting in the loss.
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