Bill Plaschke, the Lakers’ coach, attributes Dallas’ defeat on these players.
On the second night of a back-to-back against the Dallas Mavericks, your Los Angeles Lakers looked the part for the better of three quarters. Heading into the fourth down 20 points, many believed the game was over. But LA fought back and things seemed to click together for the team as they outscored the Mavericks 30-13.
It was all for nothing, however, as the team ended up losing the game by a score of 104-101. It was a tough loss to swallow, and the team knows that they let one slip away from them.
Long-time sportswriter Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times blamed the loss on the Lakers three best players, LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves. Each one made mistakes throughout the game and ended up on the wrong side of things for Plaschke.
James hardly deserves any blame for his performance, and he continues to be incredible for this team. But he did have a turnover late in the game that sealed the win for Dallas.
The Lakers star was fatigued after the long game, and it showed. But even he knows that he needs to be better going forward.
“Yeah, I left it a little short, left it a little short,” said James. “The right read, just as the quarterback, I just left it short. I didn’t lead my receiver and I got picked off.”
Davis struggled the entire night, and once again failed to show up for the Lakers. He has been great for them this year, but there have been times when he seems checked out.
“Another lesson was that they cannot survive with Davis barely showing up, as he had just four baskets and 10 points with just two offensive rebounds. He took 10 shots, missed more than half, missed his only shot in the fourth quarter, and in a matchup of this magnitude, that’s just not acceptable.”
As for Reaves, he just made a mistake on defense late in the game that led to the go-ahead three by point guard Austin Reaves.
But he does need to be better in reacting on defense for this team to go where they want to.
“That’s another lesson in Wednesday’s awakening. The Lakers can’t win if they can’t get more out of Reaves on both ends of the court. He was their surprise star last spring.”
It was an overall frustrating game for the Lakers since they made the comeback, and even took the lead at the end of the game. But it’s a long season, and all they can do is learn from this game. Next up they face the Cleveland Cavaliers where they can try to start a new winning streak on their multi-game road trip.