The Mavericks and Luka Doncic took advantage of the absence of LeBron James on Tuesday to place a scandalous 82-56 in the first half of the game and give the Lakers such a blow that he sent Los Angeles to 1959, when the team lived in Minneapolis. In passing, Doncic made his 46th career triple-double and tied with the historic Wilt Chamberlain for fifth place in the rankings for the most triple-doubles with 30-plus points. Against the Lakers, Doncic had 34 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists. The Slovenian player finished the game as the top scorer even though he did not play a single second in the last quarter. His performance in the first half was enough for the final score to stay at 128-110 in a match in which the locals won by 37 points.
You have to go back to February 27, 1959, when the Boston Celtics beat the Minneapolis Lakers 173-139, to find another game in which the Los Angeles team had conceded so many points in the first half. Then, the Bostonians made them 83 in the first half. On Tuesday night, the Mavs, led by Doncic, humiliated the Lakers with a partial of 82-56 in the first 24 minutes of the game, while James and Anthony Davis, both injured, watched in disbelief from the Los Angeles bench. Doncic had 25 points in the first half, of which 17 came in the first quarter.
In the Mavericks, in addition to Doncic, six other players had more than 10 points against the Lakers but none reached the score. Reggie Bullock was the second best scorer for the Dallas team, with 17 points. For the Lakers, Malik Monk had 28 points, with 6 triples of 10 attempts, and Russell Westbrook 25 points, in addition to 8 rebounds and 6 assists. Only the lack of interest from the Mavs in the second half of the game prevented the Lakers from leaving the American Airlines Center in Dallas with more than 150 points against them.
After the game, Mavs coach Jason Kidd, who was an assistant coach for the Lakers from 2019-2021, tried to give dignity to the Los Angeles team by stating that he respects his old team and that “Malik played well, Rus ( Westbrook) played well.” “But our team took charge of the situation early on, set the tone and played three excellent quarters,” Kidd added.
Sure enough, from the start of the game, the Mavericks mercilessly took advantage of the Lakers’ abysmal defensive game. If Doncic is dangerous against good defenses, against the starting five made up of Westbrook, Monk, Dwight Howard, Stanley Johnson and Austin Reaves, the Slovenian was like Pedro at home. Doncic opened the scoring with an easy drive to the basket in which he found no opposition and followed up with an ‘alley-oop’ assist to Dwight Powell that has become one of the Mavs’ favorite plays.
Before the more than 20,000 spectators at the American Airlines Center could finish their seats, the Mavs were up 8-0, with Doncic’s 6 points, 1 assist and 1 rebound. And while the Mavs crushed the Lakers, Los Angeles was uncoordinated in defense and timorous in attack. Frank Vogel, the coach of the Lakers, tried to put his team back together. The entrance of DJ Agustine for Westbrook with 4 minutes remaining in the first quarter did not change his team’s defensive deficiencies and the Mavs finished the first 12 minutes with an 11-0 run that left the score at 43-25.
From that initial slap, the Lakers acted like a headless chicken while the Mavs got tired of drilling holes in the Los Angeles defense. After the break, the Mavs reached their maximum advantage, 37 points, with a new triple by Doncic that put the score at 99-62 with 8 minutes remaining in the third quarter. With the game more than resolved, the Mavericks relaxed and Doncic, with a new triple-double in his pocket, sat out the entire fourth period.
Without the Slovenian on the court, the Mavs only scored 15 points in the last 12 minutes, to 26 for the Lakers, which left the score at 128-110, a figure that limited the humiliation of the Los Angeles team. Now, the Lakers are 11th in the Western Conference, out of the play-ins, while the Mavericks are the fourth team in the Western division.