The Dallas Mavericks (18-41) have a raven black evening in their first game after the All-Star Break and have no chance against the Los Angeles Lakers (24-34). Thanks to a strong appearance of their Big Men, the Lakers win with 124:102 (BOXSCORE).
Towards the middle of the first quarter, the Staples Center became really noisy for the first time this evening. First the fans greeted Isaiah Thomas at his Lakers debut at home, shortly afterwards Lonzo Ball got up from the bank to enter the floor together with his new colleague. After the young Point Guard had to suspend the last 15 games due to knee problems, the fans were very happy about his comeback.
And it didn’t take long before Ball left the first scent mark. To be exact, it took him just 15 seconds to get here. Shortly after his substitution, Ball hammered the first of a total of 3 threesomes to the 23:5 lead through the Reuse. The Lakers already had complete control of the game at that time, but Dallas was late in the game.
After the guests didn’t want to miss a throw in the first section, the Mavericks shortened their gap to 8 points for a short time at the beginning of the second round. But the dominance of the Lakers in the zone was too serious, the Mavs had nothing to oppose the Lakers’ Big Men in halftime. So it went with a 41:63 backlog into the cabin.
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Head coach Rick Carlisle obviously found the right words there. Wesley Matthews (19 points, 5/8 threesomes) scuttled four threes in a row to start the second half of the race, reducing the score to 12 points. However, the Lakers’ response promptly followed with a 14:5 race, so that the old gap was restored. The Mavericks could not recover from this.
Best man among the hosts was Julius Randle, who played a triple double with 18 points (9/13 FG), 10 assists and 12 rebounds. The other Big Men also made excellent use of their advantages in the Zone: Brandon Ingram (15 points and 9 rebounds), Ivica Zubac (14 and 6) and Kyle Kuzma (12) all played well.
Thomas also convinced with 17 points and 4 assists, while Ball (9 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists in 17 minutes) made a strong comeback. Among the guests, Harrison Barnes and Matthews were top scorers with 19 points each. Dirk Nowitzki contributed 11 points and 4 rebounds, Maxi Kleber scored 2 points in 14 minutes, 1 rebounds and 1 assist.
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Dallas Mavericks: This way to the BOXSCORE!
Julius Randle. Of course a Lakers-Big deserves this honor. In addition to his scoring, Randle also impressed with the fifth triple double of his career. When the Mavs tried to get the 23-year-old out of his rhythm with double teams, he proved his strong eye for the other players. Its plus/minus rating of +27 (together with Ingram) was also the best of all players.
Dwight Powell. About two weeks ago Powell delivered a great performance against the Lakers with 19 points and 7 rebounds. On this evening, however, the 26-year-old had almost nothing to see. Against the outstanding Big Men of the Lakers he could not set defensive or offensive accents this time.
Directly in the first few minutes of the game it became obvious that Lakers coach Luke Walton wanted to exploit the mismatch under the basket mercilessly. Brook Lopez got the ball in the post office in the early minutes and pinned two quick fouls on Nowitzki. Whether with strong guard drives, numerous cuts or simple post-ups of the Big Men – the Lakers always found a way to score-down with their game under the boards – Dallas, on the other hand, had no answer.