In what has become a much-to-familiar script for the Lakers, the purple and gold began the game with plenty of energy and built up a double-digit lead in the first half — only to allow the opposing team to win via a lopsided third quarter.
Dallas outscored the Lakers by 13 in the third period and kept a comfortable distance the rest of the way in their 101-89 victory.
“I just feel like we go away from what we do,” D’Angelo Russell said. “We come out aggressive, and then in the second half teams come out aggressive on us. And we don’t really punch back as a team. We’ve got to stay the aggressors 48 minutes.”
The Lakers have now lost 12 straight games to the Mavericks (10-23), who entered the game with the Western Conference’s worst record.
Los Angeles (12-24) made Dallas look like a completely different team than it’s been all season, as it scored six more points than its league-worst average and outhustled the Lakers on the glass.
The Mavericks entered the game last in the NBA in rebounds and second-chance points, but ended with advantages of 42-34 and 15-2 in both categories, respectively.
“This is starting to get embarrassing on our part,” said Russell, who had 15 points on 5-of-15 shooting. “We’ll figure it out — we got to.”
The Lakers — who had complied a 5-2 record on national TV before the game — initially looked like they were going to give the TNT audience a show.
After Dallas scored the game’s first seven points, L.A. rolled off 15 unanswered thanks to Russell and Nick Young.
In the second quarter, the Lakers used another big run, this time 10-0, to seize a 37-26 lead. And though Dallas cut that down to seven points by halftime, Los Angeles was still smoking hot, having shot 56.8 percent in the first half.
But then the offense began to dissolve, as the Lakers went from 11 assists in the first half to four in the second.
Young — who scored 12 first-quarter points and had hit his first six shots overall — was impacted the most, as he took only four attempts in the back half.
“We weren’t looking to pass the ball,” Young said. “A lot of one-on-one in the second half. That’s weak basketball. We deserve to give the fans better effort and better play.”
The Mavericks caught fire mid-third quarter by rolling off 13 straight points — capped by back-to-back 3-pointers by Welsey Matthews and another from Seth Curry — to take a 73-65 lead.
After concluding a 31-13 third quarter in which they held L.A. to 5-of-17 shooting, the Mavericks then never let their hosts within eight points.
“I really thought we had turned a corner a little bit,” head coach Luke Walton said. “Obviously you don’t fix everything overnight, but I thought we had made some big progress. I was disappointed to see that we had the same type of result again in a very similar game to what we have seen in the past week or two.
“But I’m still very confident that our group is going to get it. Unfortunately, it seems like we are going to have to take a lot of these lumps before it really kicks in to how hard it really is, and how locked in we have to be as a young team in the NBA, to get wins.”
Wesley Matthews led the Mavericks with 20 points — half of which came in that big third quarter — and four 3-pointers, while Deron Williams made the offense go with 11 assists.
Meanwhile, Dallas native Julius Randle had a team-high 18 points while Young added 17 and five triples. But Thomas Robinson was L.A.’s brightest spot, contributing eight points on 4-of-5 shooting with 10 rebounds (four offensive) in only 19 minutes.
Nevertheless, the Lakers’ loss put them at 2-12 since their 10-10 start to the season — the worst record in the NBA in that span.
“We’ve got to do something, because at this rate we’re gonna be just another losing team,” Young said. “We’ve got to figure it out or we’re just going to be the ‘doormat Lakers’ again.”
Notes
Harrison Barnes had 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting for Dallas. … The Mavericks led by as many as 16 points. … Jordan Clarkson had 15 points on a 7-of-11 clip. … Staples Center was sold out by an audience of 18,997.