Lakers shocked by Mavericks buzzer-beater 111-110

The locker room was silent in Los Angeles. Multiple factors accounted for the pace of play and allowing the Mavericks to make a comeback at the end of the game. Maxi Kleber stayed ready for the Mavericks to drill a 3-pointer that was the game winning shot giving the Mavericks a 111-110 win in Los Angeles. “I never had a shot like that before,” Kleber said as Kyrie Irving created a tremendous inbound play that allowed Kleber to have a great look from three-point range. With that being said and congratulated, the Los Angeles Lakers are running out of opportunities to make a push for a guaranteed playoff seed.

Multiple factors contributed to a Lakers loss. Towards the end of the 4th quarter, the Lakers allowed rebounds that turned into second chance points in addition to mistakes from Anthony Davis fouling a three-point shooter that resulted in points scored by the Mavericks with the clock stopped. Anthony Davis also was a part of a Lakers team that shot 12 made of 31 free-throw attempts in addition to going on a 3 minute and 16 second scoring drought.

The Lakers continue to struggle with holding a lead late in games. Los Angeles led by four points and had the ball possession with less than 20 seconds left, but resulted in another loss and now has dropped the last three of four games. Coach Ham understood that there is not just one factor that led to the loss, however his emphasis on free throws is evident in a close game. “We make our free throws, we’re probably not having this conversation.

With LeBron James sitting his 10th straight game, the Lakers are 5-5 in the last 10 games, and will need to control their destiny by winning as many games as possible not too mention help from a very crowded 5th through 10th seed in the Western Conference playoff race. Lakers host the Orlando Magic on Sunday and will need to build on the experience from Friday night knowing that a tiebreaker between Dallas Mavericks and Lakers results in Mavericks holding the edge. Los Angeles is now in “playoff-mentality” games from now on since there are only six games left in the regular season. Mavericks’ head to Memphis to play a very defensive minded Grizzlies team on Monday needing as many wins as possible as well.