The Lakers recovered part of the ground they lost with fans, sensations and public opinion in the disaster signed against the Pelicans. Receiving the Mavericks was not a tasteful dish either, and during the first half they suffered from all the evils that appear to them this season, but they came back and were able to at least fight the match. But Doncic decided. The start of the Angelenos’ fury in the third quarter put them ahead on the scoreboard when they had gone 56-71 at halftime, quite an achievement that the Crypto Arena was able to see. It was in those game ends that so little fall on his side this year, nor this one, in which the work goes down the drain. Luka’s quality, taking LeBron to his field and setting traps for him as if the veteran were the Slovenian, marked the decisive strip of the evening, which Dallas took 104-109.
Los Angeles begins to look down in the rankings because it can be left even without play inthe round before the playoffs. They are ninth, but have two wins to Pelicans and Blazers. The threat is, above all, in those of New Orleans, before those who lost with a crash on Sunday. Three losses in a row for the Lakers and six of the last seven possible make anyone tremble.
The Lakers tried to start with LeBron James at center, a change of direction from Vogel before the departure of Jordan and the loss of Davis. It worked relatively well. It was the 30th starting lineup other than the head coach this season, the second-most in the tournament behind Nash’s dysfunctional Nets. The genius from Akron, author of 26 points as the top scorer for his team, has already played in that position several times in his career, although here he had to do everything, the position was somewhat fictitious, and he had his minutes of absolute mental chaos given how bad things were going for them again. When, under his command, they began to stick their heads out and hurt the rival, Doncic arrived, also the leading scorer with 25 points, to reduce the Californian joy and apply ointment to James’ wound. The exchange in which both got into during the last minutes was taken by the European with ease and it was reason for the Mavs to walk away smiling.
The concentration of the locals when defending Doncic lasted exactly two minutes, which took the former Madrid player to go to the central lane, breaking Reaves and Johnson to complete a 2+1. The Texans were also good in rhythm, dependent on Luka but with success in shooting three as soon as they came running or directly into the race, like the hang on Kleber that aroused the first doubts in the Lakers. The one that was seen to be serious was Doncic and it is forced to focus on a specific sequence: a penetration in which he was looking for the layup and, colliding with Westbrook, he hit a costal blow for which he could not go down to defend and complained ostensibly to the referees calling for a foul; On the next possession he furiously went to the rim following a teammate’s shot and nailed a rebound-dunk, shouting from the rooftops that you have to respect him. There the Lakers went without scoring for five minutes between fourth and fourth, a streak broken by an unexpected Bazemore, and they really began to suffer.
The intensity and placement on the court were the opposite of what a coach like Frank Vogel demands, it seems that they are puppets in the hands of another artist who is not him. The Mavs viciously ran over the opposite. Dinwiddie performed well in Doncic’s absence, Brunson made the shots and almost left his foot in a Johnson stomp, Kleber unhinged the entire opposite team, Green was useful on both sides, Powell carried the energy of his last name as a flag , etc. The clearest example was that they did not stop adding 2 + 1, they went up to three in a few minutes, which speaks of the difficulty of the Lakers to stop those offensives. The intensity rose, also the bite of some Lakers out of point. They were close to twenty disadvantage and another barrage called Dorian Finney-Smith came to them: three triples in three minutes before the break, one of them taking advantage of the fact that LeBron James stayed protesting a foul, to increase the anger.
They knew they had to do something and they did it. With force, but also with head. The Lakers began to move the ball so that they had better shooting positions. Stanley Johnson didn’t flinch and was able to hit two 3-pointers. For LeBron James there were three, one of them from the central logo, to take guilt off his shoulders. The monster’s last shot was 78-78. They had tied at half a quarter when they were more than broken. The merit is incontestable. They also knew how to maintain it, putting themselves above and making men like Westbrook or Carmelo grow, capitals for them.
A technical to the impetuous Kleber opened up six points away with seven minutes remaining. The Lakers were where they wanted after having blushed again in a bad first half. But it is played to the end. Doncic had one more bullet. Some accounts of them, rather. From then until the entire partial was resolved, it was 2-15. LeBron switched defensive assignments as he saw Doncic take control of the game, matched up with him and didn’t win. For LeBron, the hoop spit the ball on his shots after being punted by Doncic and Doncic was successful in all the strategies to gain a little space and shoot. Inflection point? A penetration by Luka from the left in which he took advantage of James’ weight to unbalance himself backwards and shoot to one leg. There it was seen that this match was going to Dallas and that Doncic would be the one who was going to shelve it. So it was.