The Los Angeles Lakers entered Tuesday night’s game against the Dallas Mavericks at 31-43 on the season and potentially set to miss out on the NBA play-in tournament altogether.
Los Angeles was without stars LeBron James (knee) and Anthony Davis (foot) for the game against a much superior opponent.
Only a half of a game ahead of the San Antonio Spurs for the final play-in spot, the Lakers yielded 82 points in the first half. It’s the most points this team has given up in a half since moving to Los Angeles back in 1960. That’s not a typo.
En route to falling down by 26 points at the half, the Lakers also allowed Luka Doncic to go off for 25 points in the first 24 minutes.
It didn’t get much better for the Los Angeles Lakers from there with Dallas netting 19 of the first 28 points through just five minutes in the third quarter. You read that right. The Mavericks were up 101-65 at the seven-minute mark of the third quarter.
By that point, Doncic had gone off for 32 points on 11-of-20 shooting while grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing out 10 assists. The dude had a triple-double with a full 18 minutes remaining in the game.
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