The Los Angeles Lakers were back in action on Tuesday night, finishing up their two-game Texas road trip against the Dallas Mavericks.
The Mavericks were missing their two stars in Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, giving the Lakers a prime opportunity to pick up a win. That’s not how things played out though as the Lakers had an extremely poor effort, suffering a 118-97 loss in Dallas.
Austin Reaves started the game off with a triple but the Mavericks then responded with seven straight points with Spencer Dinwiddie leading the way against his former team.
LeBron James had the crowd on its feet early with a ridiculous dunk, switching to his left hand while in the air. Reaves then buried another 3-pointer to give the Lakers the lead.
Anthony Davis went into attack mode from there, scoring eight straight points to keep the Lakers in front. The Mavericks hung in there though and were only trailing by three at the end of the first, 27-24, after a triple by James to close it.
Jaxson Hayes came in for Davis to start the second and couldn’t stop fouling, picking up four in less than four minutes. Hayes wasn’t the only one fouling as the number of whistles in the second quarter really slowed down the game.
Max Christie had a nice stretch of nine quick points for the Lakers, forcing a Mavericks timeout. Klay Thompson then had a good response for his team with three triples in a row to regain the lead. Dinwiddie then beat the buzzer with a layup as the Lakers had a horrible close to the half and went into the locker room trailing 55-50.
Dallas continued its run into the third quarter, extending the lead to double digits with Dinwiddie having his way against his former team.
After a much-needed timeout, James energized his team with another dunk. Christie also brought the team some energy with a three-point play and a block, followed by back-to-back Davis layups to force a Mavericks timeout.
The Lakers then went to a zone though Jaden Hardy torched them with three 3s in a row from the same exact spot. Quentin Grimes then made one and all of a sudden the Lakers trailed by 15. L.A. looked disinterested as they faced an 89-76 deficit going into the fourth quarter.
With the game in the balance, the Lakers needed a spark and Dalton Knecht provided it with eight straight points. The Mavericks were playing with confidence though so getting stops and cutting into the deficit was not easy.
If fact, the Lakers’ defense couldn’t get any stops at all, so there was no comeback to be had late with the Mavericks maintaining and closing out a comfortable win.
What’s next for the Lakers
The Lakers will now return home, where they will not have to leave Los Angeles for nearly three weeks, starting with a game against the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday.
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