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Dave McMenamin, ESPN writer
DALLAS — The Los Angeles Lakers’ growing momentum came to a screeching halt Tuesday with a 118-97 loss to a shorthanded Dallas Mavericks team, leaving Los Angeles at 0-2 on their two-step Texas road trip that began with a loss in Houston.
“I mean, it obviously sucks, especially knowing where we were and how well we’ve been playing,” LeBron James said after the Lakers fell to No. 6 in the Western Conference standings.
They began the journey in fourth place in the West, having won eight of 11 games while upgrading the roster, acquiring Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton for D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round picks.
But things got worse. Los Angeles trailed by as many as 22 in the first half before losing 119-115 to the Houston Rockets, a team that came into the game having lost three of four games and without Jabari Smith Jr. (fractured left hand).
The Lakers’ stumble continued in Dallas against the Mavericks who arrived having lost six of seven games. Despite the Mavs playing without Luka Doncic (left calf strain), Kyrie Irving (bulging disc in back) and Daniel Gafford (left ankle injury), Dallas outscored Los Angeles 63-47 in the second half to take the victory.
“Obviously, they killed us with any iso stuff,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said after his team allowed the Mavs to shoot 52.3% from the field and almost as well from 3, going 18 of 38 (47.4%).
James (18 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists) credited Mavs coach Jason Kidd, a former Lakers assistant coach, for his “great game plan” against the Lakers defense.
Specifically, Kidd ordered his players to target Austin Reaves in isolation situations.
“I felt like they just put the people they wanted in the pick-and-roll and tried to exploit the matchups,” James said. “And when we went into rotations, we didn’t make enough second efforts.”
Reaves took responsibility for his performance.
“The first half was awful,” said Reaves, who finished with a plus/minus of -25 in 32 minutes. “I thought the second half was better. But I can’t allow that. Tonight I was very, very bad on both sides of the ball.”
Reaves scored 15 points, going 5 of 14 from the field (4 of 11 from 3).
The Lakers’ most consistent player this season, Anthony Davis, didn’t fare much better. He scored 21 points on 7-of-18 shooting with 12 rebounds and 2 blocks, but was partially responsible for Dallas going 52-40 in the paint.
Redick pointed out the group of rabbits the Lakers missed at the rim (including Davis) sapping their energy on the defensive end.
Davis declined to speak to reporters after the game.
Finney-Smith said the Lakers could have used Davis and the rest of the team being more vocal on defense to help players like Reaves when they were targeted on pick-and-rolls.
“We’ve got to do a better job talking behind guys, giving them confidence so defenders can get in on the ball handlers and force them to the rim,” Finney-Smith said. “And we have AD down there, so we have to use it.”
The Lakers return to Los Angeles for their next eight games (seven at Crypto.com Arena and their debut at the Intuit Dome to play the LA Clippers), starting with the Charlotte Hornets.
“We have another game in less than 48 hours,” James said. “So we can’t dwell on that too much. That’s the name of the NBA game. You see what you could have done better, but you have to prepare for the next opponent and we have another game ahead of us.” on Thursday in our house building.
