DALLAS, TEXAS — After breaking the ice and snapping their 3 game losing streak the Mavericks defeated the visiting Los Angeles Lakers 115-110.
Their game against the Pistons was good for the cause record wise but there were still outlying issues on Wednesday night. The Lakers are the defending champs that went without two of their stars for quite some time now, but it was announced early Thursday evening that Anthony Davis would return to the lineup.
Dallas was the clear underdog in this matchup even without Lebron James in the lineup and the Mavericks desperately needed momentum swung in their favor as their chances of playing in the play-in tournament increased with each loss they suffered.
The Mavericks offense continued their trend of slow starts allowing the Lakers to go on a 14-6 run in the opening minutes, but flipped the script quickly before things got out of hand scoring 10 straight points and took the lead in the process. Kristaps Porzingis finished the first quarter leading the Mavericks in scoring with 11 points and Josh Richardson added 8 points into the mix. Luka Doncic had a quiet first quarter in the scoring column but distributed the ball well setting up his teammates for easy shots. Dallas finished the first quarter shooting 55% from the field but found little success from the three point line. The Mavericks’ run helped secure a 31-26 lead at the end of the first quarter which was rare for this team. .
The Mavericks made some big plays to start the second quarter with one score coming off a Luka alley oop to Dwight Powell who got his second consecutive start which ignited a solid stretch of balanced basketball. The Mavericks scored 7 straight points to open the quarter. Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porizingis scored most of the Mavericks points and finished the second quarter leading the Mavericks in scoring, combining for 22 first quarter points, but their performance was uneven. The duo combined to convert on 42% of their shots in the quarter but despite their “ok” third quarter shooting performance it helped nonetheless.
Dallas got a break tonight because Anthony Davis who has missed the last 30 games still needed to get into basketball shape and he shot 2 out 10 from the field. Dallas finished the first half with a convincing lead and the fact is the Mavericks were ahead of the defending champions and that is something that can boost a team late in the season.
At the beginning of the second half the Lakers began to show flashes of their 4th seeded prestige putting together a 8-0 run to bring the Mavericks lead to within 3 points after the Mavericks led by 11 points at the end of the first half.
It didn’t take Dallas long to get warmed up and respond with a 10-0 run of their to put the lead back to 9 points. The Mavericks had some difficulty containing Dennis Schroeder and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and they were the main catalysts in the Lakers efforts to regain the lead after trailing by double digits. The biggest turning point of the game was when Kristaps Porzingis suffered a rolled ankle at the latter part of the third quarter with the Mavericks trailing the Lakers by 1 point. The Dallas players were galvanized by seeing their teammate go down and topped off the third quarter converting on 4 out of 5 of their final shot attempts to once again take a 94-90 lead.
In the fourth quarter Luka Doncic went to the bench for rest and for the trainers to see what was up with the upper leg injury he suffered in the latter part of the third quarter. With both of the Mavericks stars out, Rick Carlisle looked to his bench and JJ Redick was one of the players he called upon and the move certainly helped the Mavericks cause. JJ Redick scored 5 of the Mavericks opening points preventing the Lakers from taking advantage of an undermanned Mavericks team for the moment. It took a collective effort to maintain their lead with Josh Richardson, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Willie Cauley-Stein splitting the workload with a combined 75% shooting percentage in the fourth quarter.
Because of Dallas’s defensive efforts the Mavericks walked away with the victory and officially tied the Trailblazers in the western conference.
Dallas has gathered some momentum during their last two games at home. Their chances of playing the play-in tournament are still 50-50 because it all depends on the record. This was a win the Mavericks needed to get and need a few more of these types of wins for everything to fall in their favor.
