LOS ANGELES – Sitting within two points of the Los Angeles Lakers at halftime on Wednesday night, the Mavericks were in excellent
position to get out of Crypto.com Arena with a victory.
Then, the third quarter happened. And those fatal 12 minutes wound up ultimately costing the Mavs the game.
D’Angelo Russell, Anthony Davis and LeBron James combined for 82 points and the Lakers outscored the Mavs, 42-27, in the third quarter on their way to emerging victorious, 127-110. In what was the first game of the second half of the season for the Mavs, they now own a 24-18 record while the Lakers are 21-21.
In his first game back after missing three games with a right ankle sprain, Mavs guard Luka Doncic said of the Lakers’ third-quarter explosion: “They couldn’t miss a shot. I think we played good defense, especially in the first half.
“In the third quarter they were just knocking everything down, so that was tough.”
The Mavs were only down, 55-53 at the half. After the third quarter, they were down, 97-80, and threading water the balance of the game.
Russell led the Lakers with 29 points, Davis had 28 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists, and James pitched in 25 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. That trio just kept knocking down key basket after key basket, and the Mavs didn’t have an answer.
“They played off of (Russell) and AD tonight and that just put a lot of pressure on our defense,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. “And then it put more 
pressure on our offense when we were playing from behind and missing.
“When you miss open shots against a team like that, they’re going to make you pay for it.”
Kidd acknowledged it was doubly tough trying to contain Davis, who was 12-of-17 from the field.
“He’s playing at a very high level,” Kidd said. “They’re playing to him. He’s getting to the basket (and) to the free throw line.
“You’ve got to try to double-team him, and then he’s playing on the perimeter to beat the double-team. You just got to try to make it as hard as possible and hopes he misses at the right time, but tonight he played well.”
Doncic played well enough to register his 37th career 30-point triple-double as he finished with 33 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. That ties him with James for third-place on the NBA’s all-time list in the 30-point triple-double department.
“Any time Luka comes back, it’s a positive,” Kidd said. “Guys were playing different roles. Luka comes back they’ve got to make the adjustment.”
Besides Doncic, rookie center Dereck Lively II collected 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Mavs. But Kyrie Irving and Tim Hardaway Jr, who scored 42 and 41 points, respectively, during Monday’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans, were held to 12 points apiece.
It was especially difficult for Irving, who James crashed into near midcourt less than five minutes into the game. Irving went to the locker room for some medical attention, but emerged later in the first quarter and eventually missed his first seven shots before making four of his final nine attempts.
“He hurt his hip there and he was just trying to get loose and trying to get back into the flow of things,” Kidd said. “I think he just struggled from that point on.”
As a whole, the Mavs were just 11-of-40 from three-point range, and that was another reason why they couldn’t keep step for step with the Lakers in the second half.
“Some shots didn’t fall,” said Lively, who had six dunks. “There were some times where we came down the court and we just weren’t moving the ball well. We were just kind of getting up jumpers instead of trying to get into the offense and trying to move the ball around so we could get a better look.
“There were points and times we executed well and points and time we didn’t. We left the top of the key wide open many times. Usually, we’re more focused on x-ing out the corners, and I feel like it was mis-talking on the back line. But we’ve got to be able to move pass it and we’ve got to be able to fix the mistakes and get ready for the next one.”
Kidd said the Mavs had a lot of wide open three-point shots, but they just didn’t convert them.
“
We generated a lot of them, when you look at Timmie, 0-for-7, Luka 2-for-7, Kai 1 for 5,” Kidd said. “They looked (like) wide open looks. They just didn’t drop for us this evening.”
The Mavs led by as much as seven points (17-10) thanks to eight points – including three dunks – by Lively. To open the game, Lively scored inside off a pass from Doncic, then dunked the ball after receiving another pass from Doncic.
On the ensuing trip up the court, Lively skied high and grabbed a high pass from Irving and dunked it, much to the chagrin of the crowd. A three-pointer by Derrick Jones Jr. eventually gave the Mavs a 17-10 lead with 6:48 remaining in the first quarter.
However, a 22-6 run by the Lakers, capped by a jumper from Russell, put the Lakers ahead, 32-23, with 1:10 to go in the first quarter.
“They made a point to have pace,” Kidd said. “They took advantage of the misses and they got to the rim.”
Doncic, meanwhile, said he was just happy to be on the court.
“For me, for the first game, it’s tough – the legs,” he said. “I thought a lot of threes were going in, but it didn’t.”
That was the theme of the night for the Mavs. In the meantime, Kidd wasn’t sure if his team will be flying to San Francisco on Thursday to play the Golden State Warriors as scheduled on Friday, or flying back to Dallas.
This became a situation after Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojevic suffered a heart attack and died on Wednesday while the team was in Salt Lake City where they were slated to play the Jazz on Wednesday night. The Warriors-Jazz game was ultimately postponed by the NBA.
“We’re going to know tomorrow if we’re playing or not – tomorrow morning, I think,” coach Jason Kidd said. “We’ll go home (Thursday) if we’re not playing. There’s no need to fly to San Francisco.”
X: @DwainPrice
Share and comment