LOS ANGELES – All good things eventually come to an end.
The Lakers winning streak stopped at 10 after a 14-point loss to the Mavericks during the Sunday matinee game at STAPLES Center.
As it’s often the case against Dallas these days, the game revolved around the brilliance of Luka Doncic. The Lakers defended him effectively in a tight first half, but couldn’t corral him from the third quarter on – coinciding with the stretch that essentially broke open the game.
L.A. forced the Slovenian guard into four turnovers and held him to 6 points and 5 assists before the intermission, thanks to a valiant effort from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and the help on switches from Alex Caruso and Danny Green. The rim protection was there in the first 24 minutes as well (40-22 advantage in points in the paint at the half), allowing Frank Vogel’s squad to go to the locker room up by 3.
Unfortunately, the purple and gold just couldn’t replicate that in the second half, and all the negative tendencies of the last couple of games reared their ugly heads at the same time.
“They pushed the tempo (and) had better pace than us," said LeBron James. “A couple of calls went against us and changed the momentum of the game.”
The Mavericks traded points in the paint for a long-range barrage, finishing the afternoon with 15 made three-pointers – aided by unusual contributors like Justin Jackson and Delon Wright.
And with Doncic running the show and finding his offense in the second half, all they had to do was secure the boards (they did with a 51-45 advantage) and punish mistakes (19 points off 14 turnovers and 19 points off 12 offensive rebounds).
The Lakers just couldn’t get it going offensively in the second half, getting their second basket of the third quarter on an Alex Caruso three-pointer with 3:26 to go. Moments before, the Mavericks' lead had risen to 20 and although the Lakers would quickly cut it to 10, the fate of the game was all but sealed.
This was despite a near triple-double from James (25-9-8), who was an absolute menace on passing lanes early on:
Anthony Davis also had a well-rounded performance, leading the team with 27 points and 10 rebounds on 10-for-21 from the field.
He just struggled like everybody else on the team with the zone employed by Rick Carlisle’s team. His first half included highlights like these though:
Consider it the type of letdown that always happens at some point after stringing together several wins.
“Our whole thing is we don’t want to lose 2 in a row, ever,” Davis said. “There’s definitely going to be a bounce back game. We want to make sure we correct everything we did poorly (today), specially rebounding.”
And with trips to Denver, Utah, and Portland on tap, an excellent opportunity to reset and go searching for a new streak.