Although the Los Angeles Lakers had an impressive 112-105 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are second in the Western Conference, on Monday, there was still a sense that they were in trouble. The win gave them a 20-21 record, which was only good enough for 10th place in the West.
They hosted the Dallas Mavericks, who were 24-17, on Wednesday and hoped they could duplicate Monday’s performance.
Instead, they improved on it.
The Lakers fell behind by seven points early in the first quarter, but their superstar duo started to assert themselves, giving them as large as a nine-point lead in the opening period. They went cold early in the second quarter, particularly from long-range, but they were able to take a 55-53 lead at halftime.
Los Angeles quickly extended its lead to 10 early in the third quarter, then went up by as many as 24 behind its running game. After going 4-of-16 from 3-point range in the first half, it got hot from that distance and shot 15-of-23 overall to score 42 points in the third period, while the Mavs were as chilly as the polar air mass currently engulfing Middle America.
The Lakers led 97-80 heading into the final 12 minutes, and they glided to an easy and pleasing 127-110 win over Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving’s crew.
Indeed, it was their transition game that made the Mavs look like they were playing with parachutes attached to their backs. The Purple and Gold had 32 fast-break points to just seven for their opponents, and they even went 12-of-28 from downtown while Dallas was just 11-of-40 from that distance.
Although it’s a small sample space, L.A. has now won four of its last six games. It will host the Brooklyn Nets and Portland Trail Blazers on Friday and Sunday, respectively, giving it an opportunity to establish a four-game winning streak.
Anthony Davis: A-plus
At this point, great or dominant performances from Davis are becoming ho-hum. He scored 28 points while missing only five of his 17 shot attempts, and he also grabbed 12 rebounds, five of them coming on the offensive glass.
When the Mavs did double-team him, he picked them apart to the tune of nine assists. He also did a fine job of running the floor in transition to get easy baskets and put pressure on the Mavs’ defense.
Taurean Prince: C-minus
Prince shot 3-of-8 from the field, but he missed all three of his 3-point attempts. He scored nine points and had one rebound and one assist.
Defensively, he couldn’t do much against Doncic, who shot 50% and had a triple-double with 33 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. However, Doncic only made two of his nine 3-point attempts.
Even when Prince isn’t hitting from downtown, simply the threat of him knocking down shots from that distance causes opponents to stick to him like glue, which opens things up for his teammates.
Austin Reaves: B-plus
Reaves shot a toasty 6-of-8 from the field and made both of his 3-point tries to score 14 points while dropping off seven assists and adding three rebounds and one steal. On the defensive end, with his help, Irving was held to only 12 points on 4-of-16 shooting.
D'Angelo Russell: A-plus
Russell is truly starting to leave behind his chilly stretch in December during which he had trouble buying a basket. On Wednesday, he almost seemingly couldn’t miss, going 11-of-20 overall and 5-of-7 from deep to score a team-high 29 points. He was clearly feeling it, and he helped provide some of the thrust in L.A.’s transition game, partly by hitting 3-pointers on the break.
He only had three assists in this game, but it didn’t matter, as he was the hot hand, and thus it didn’t make much sense for him to look for the open man as his first option offensively.
LeBron James: A
Going up against Irving, his friend and former teammate, James looked lively and energetic. He shot 10-of-19 overall and 3-of-7 from downtown to score 25 points while also contributing eight rebounds and eight assists. Because of the lopsided nature of this win, he was able to only play 33 minutes, which will certainly help him physically in the long run.
Rui Hachimura: C-plus
Hachimura couldn’t find his rhythm on Wednesday. He shot just 2-of-6 and scored just six points in 22 minutes, although he did help out with four rebounds, two steals and one assist.
Jarred Vanderbilt: B-plus
Vanderbilt did quite the job on the boards by getting seven rebounds in just 13 first-half minutes. He made a nice pass in transition to Davis for a dunk after grabbing the defensive rebound to start the fast break in the first quarter. Then in the fourth quarter, he got a nice fast-break dunk himself off a lovely bounce pass from James.
The forward finished with nine rebounds and seven points. Five of his points came at the free throw line, as he did a good job of running the floor and getting open. Although the stat sheet doesn’t fully show it, he also helped out on defense by being active and disruptive.
After playing his way into shape following a heel ailment that kept him out for the first several weeks of the season, Vanderbilt appears to be getting his wind back.
Christian Wood: D
After playing well over the last few weeks, Wood put up a dud against Dallas. Making just one of his five shot attempts, he had just two points, two rebounds, one assist and one steal in 17 minutes.
Luckily, the Lakers’ starting lineup played so well that Wood wasn’t really needed much in this game.
Max Christie: B
In 14 minutes, Christie made both of his shot attempts, one of which was a 3-pointer, and he also added two rebounds.
Jaxson Hayes, Skylar Mays: Incomplete
Hayes and Mays played five minutes apiece. Hayes went scoreless with one assist and one steal, while Mays shot 1-of-2 and added one assist.
