All Lakers

Lakers Final Score: LA Falls 111-110 To Dallas After Heartbreaking Buzzer-Beater

The Lakers are now 34-37 and teetering on the fringes of the West's play-in bracket.
Alex Kirschenbaum|
Lakers Final Score: LA Falls 111-110 To Dallas After Heartbreaking Buzzer-Beater
Lakers Final Score: LA Falls 111-110 To Dallas After Heartbreaking Buzzer-Beater

In this story:

Los Angeles LakersDallas Mavericks

On Friday night, your Los Angeles Lakers fought hard against the visiting Dallas Mavericks at Crypto.com Arena, but costly late-game mental gaffes from their best available player ultimately proved too much to overcome. Paltry three-point and free-throw shooting efficacy didn't help, either.

Things were fairly evenhanded in the game's first quarter. Starting center Anthony Davis and reserve forward Rui Hachimura were the stars of the show, scoring eight and seven, respectively, to help LA build up a 33-29 edge at the end of the frame.

Backup center/power forward Wenyen Gabriel also this a nice defensive sequence to preserve that margin as time expired:

Things remained fairly even until midway through the second quarter, when the scoring of Kyrie Irving, Josh Green and Christian Wood powered the Mavs to a 20-12 finish in the frame and a 62-54 advantage at the halftime break.

Gabriel had a great night on the glass, pulling down a team-leading 11 rebounds. Here was a critical one in the third quarter, which led to this Hachimura corner triple:

The Mavericks maintained a slight-but-steady edge throughout the period, led inevitably by All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving, who had 25 points through the game's first three quarters, closing things out in the third with a 28-foot pull-up triple with 11 seconds remaining.

LA trotted out a three-guard lineup of Dennis Schroder, D'Angelo Russell, and Austin Reaves, plus Gabriel at power forward and Davis at center, at the start of the fourth quarter, and quickly went on a 14-7 run to build a one-point lead halfway through the period.

Defense by Reaves and Davis was a huge part of that. Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

After Austin Reaves nailed a pair of free throws, the Lakers took a 109-105 lead into the contest's final 50 seconds. Unfortunately, the MVP of the game's final 50 seconds wound up being Dallas big man Maxi Kleber. Anthony Davis fouled Kleber shooting a triple, and he subsequently nailed all three of his looks at the charity stripe with 7.2 seconds remaining. Both Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd and Lakers head coach Darvin Ham opted for some offense/defense hockey rotation switches in those final seconds.

Davis drew a foul himself, courtesy of Dallas shooting guard Josh Green, but split his two free throws to put LA up 110-108.

Ultimately, the ball went to Irving in Dallas' final possession. The Lakers double-teamed the eight-time All-Star, he fed a wide-open Kleber from beyond the arc, and Davis, who had been sort of manning the middle and hesitant to stick to Kleber after having been whistled for a foul seconds prior, was late to close out, leading to this:

Ouch.

Davis finished with 26 points while shooting 9-of-14 from the field and 8-of-11 from the foul line. Six Lakers finished in double-digit scoring, though almost nobody could make an impact from deep. Los Angeles went just 5-of-20 from three-point land, and had trouble connecting on its free throw looks, though the team went to the line often (19-of-31). The Mavericks went 16-of-34 from long range (47.1%) -- i.e. they generated 33 more points than LA beyond the arc. 

Irving was ultimately the star of the show, scoring 38 points on 14-of-23 shooting (and he made as many three's individually as LA did collectively, going 5-of-9 on treys), grabbing six rebounds and dishing out six assists.

The loss drops the Lakers, losers of two straight, to a 34-37 record and now the 11th seed in the West, and improves the Mavericks to the conference's sixth seed at 36-35. LA has another shot to get on the board tonight against the 29-42 Orlando Magic.

Are you following us on Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube yet? Join the conversation as we discuss the latest Lakers news and rumors with fans like you!

Published
Alex Kirschenbaum
ALEX KIRSCHENBAUM

Currently also a scribe for Newsweek, Hoops Rumors, The Sporting News and "Gremlins" director Joe Dante's film site Trailers From Hell, Alex is an alum of Men's Journal, Grizzlies fan site Grizzly Bear Blues, and Bulls fan sites Blog-A-Bull and Pippen Ain't Easy, among others.

Home/News