The Los Angeles Lakers had been riding high coming into their matchup against the Dallas Mavericks but they were run off the floor as they lost 114-100.
The Lakers got off to a fast start, but it did not take the Mavericks long to get going on the offensive end as Luka Doncic and the rest of his team lit it up from beyond the arc. They hit 14-of-36 three-point attempts thanks to some beautiful ball movement and Los Angeles was a step slow trying to get out to contest.
The All-Star duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis was solid, but the rest of the roster struggled mightily to knock down open shots and slow down the Mavericks’ potent offense.
After the game, head coach Frank Vogel discussed the importance of bouncing back after a loss and how much faith he has in his roster to get back on track.
“Well, that’s part of growing together: how you respond to losses. Couldn’t have a tougher opponent coming up with the next game. Playing in Denver is always tough as well as they’re playing this year, it’s gonna be even tougher,” Vogel said.
“I believe in our guys. If we play to our abilities, there’s nobody we can’t beat and nowhere we can’t get a W, so we gotta make sure that we respond from this and bounce back and try to get a W a couple days from now.”
Talent often wins out in the NBA and Los Angeles will always be in games whenever Davis and James suit up. However, a loss like the one against Dallas was somewhat predictable given how often they have had to come back from double-digit deficits in recent weeks to inferior competition.
Good teams will punish the Lakers for slippage on either end and they will need to learn how to maintain their focus and intensity for a full 48-minute game instead of select stretches. The players have done a good job of building chemistry in a short amount of time, but they will need to play up to their abilities if they hope to hit their championship ceiling.
Like Vogel mentioned, the Nuggets pose perhaps the biggest test of the 2019-20 NBA season so far as they currently hold the second-best record in the Western Conference. They are deep at every position, so the purple and gold are going to have to come out as the aggressors from the tip if they want to earn a win.