How the Mavericks rode hot shooting to defeat the Lakers on Christmas (2024)

LeBron James and Luka Dončić led the Lakers and Mavericks into a Christmas Day afternoon matchup at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday in Dallas, in a game televised on ABC and ESPN. The two stars certainly came to the party, but only one of their teams has joined them thus far. The Mavericks rode a 51-point third quarter to turn an 11-point halftime deficit into a 19-point third quarter lead, and eventually pulled away for a 124-115 win, overcoming LeBron's 38-point performance

Neither team is off to the start it envisioned. Los Angeles (13-20) has now lost four in a row — and is without Anthony Davis for the foreseeable future. Dallas (18-16) entered the day only eighth in the Western Conference, though Dončić is coming off a 50-point, 10-assist, eight-rebound performance in a win over the Rockets.

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(Photo: Jerome Miron / USA Today)

Poor LeBron James. He exited this Lakers-Mavericks game for good with time winding down in a blowout loss, having logged 38 points, six rebounds and five assists in his 17th Christmas Day game.

In a game the Lakers trailed by double digits after halftime, James somehow posted a positive plus minus before the game got out of hand. When James left the game at the 2:32 mark of the fourth quarter, the Lakers had outscored Dallas by two points in his 34 minutes he played and been outscored by 18 in the 12 minutes he sat. (The 124-115 final score included some late garbage time buckets).

We all know the Lakers’ supporting cast is subpar. It was limited BEFORE Anthony Davis went down with a foot injury. Now, it barely exists. Dallas’ crew around Luka Doncic isn’t exactly a murderers row, and it was also shorthanded due to key injuries. Yet the Mavericks’ roster looked positively loaded compared with the Lakers’ on this day.

James has accomplished so much in his career and life, so it’s hard to feel too sorry for him. He also bears some culpability for the dilapidated state of the team, given how closely he is connected to the front office.

Still, this isn’t how an all-time great should go out. Watching the game, I couldn’t help but pity him.

Photo: Glenn James / NBAE via Getty Images

The Lakers will drop to 1-4 since Anthony Davis’ injury. They’ve allowed 124-plus points in four of those five games. Los Angeles is 13-20 and 13th in the West. With four more games left on their road trip, and the team 5-12 on the road, they’re in danger of falling out of the Play-In mix soon.

The Lakers first shifted to LeBron James at center. Then, with James resting, the Lakers’ current lineup became Austin Reaves, Lonnie Walker IV, Russell Westbrook, Patrick Beverley and Dennis Schroder, which has to be the smallest lineup that’s played this season.

This has helped space the floor and create cleaner driving lanes for James and the Lakers’ guards. However, they are incredibly small defensively, allowing Christian Wood to gobble up offensive rebounds and, in turn, forcing the Lakers to over-rotate to the paint and leave Dallas’ shooters. It feels like the Lakers are on a sinking ship. Anytime they plug a hole, another that was unattended to emerges.

Luka Doncic picked up his fifth team foul with the Mavericks leading 106-93 about halfway through the fourth quarter. He appeared to pick up his sixth at the 3:50 mark with the Mavericks leading by 16 points, but the call was overturned. So he's still in the game.

This game feels about over, but there could be late drama if Doncic were to foul out somehow.

After only scoring 43 points in the first half, the Mavericks just dropped 51 points on the Lakers in the third quarter — the highest-scoring quarter by a team this season. Just an incredible offensive display from Dallas.

There really wasn't anything stopping the Mavericks' offense from doing what they've done in the third in the first two quarters, too, except that Dallas simply wasn't making shots earlier in this game. Granted, you still wouldn't have expected them to hit THAT many shots all at once. Dallas' 51-point third quarter is tied for a franchise record and the most for a team this season. Dallas started the half down 11 and end the third up 19, a 30-point turnaround.

The Lakers, meanwhile, came into this game with the NBA's fourth-worst third quarter net rating. One has to think that number will drop after what we just witnessed.

Here's the Mavericks' third-quarter shot chart, via NBA.com. That's a lot of green by the 3-point line.

-Tim Cato, Jovan Buha and Mike Prada

Luka Doncic post up (or drive), swing, 3.

Luka Doncic post up (or drive), swing, 3.

Luka Doncic post up (or drive), swing, 3.

Luka Doncic post up (or drive), swing, 3.

Luka Doncic post up (or drive), swing, 3.

(Dallas leads by 19, somehow)

The third quarter has been the Lakers' worst quarter this season – they rank 27th in third-quarter net rating, getting outscored by 10.3 points per 100 possessions. They are unraveling here with late rotations, stagnant offense and a lack of composure. That 11-point halftime lead has turned into an 11-point deficit with 4:04 remaining in the frame.

Man, it's really glaring to see JaVale McGee, the Mavericks' main signing, not even make it onto the court in this game. He hasn't had a sudden athletic decline from the minutes we've seen him on the court, but his inability to make rotations with the scheme of the Mavericks' defensive principals just makes him an absolute liability — to the point he's not even playing in a game like this.

Dallas did do something to address its lack of rim protection in that first half, starting Dwight Powell at the 5 to begin the third quarter instead of Reggie Bullock.

Christian Wood’s playing time – or lack thereof – has been a hot-button issue for Mavericks fans all season. So it’s only fitting that Wood has put together a first half against the Lakers that perfectly illustrates the dilemma Jason Kidd has when deciding how to use him.

On the one hand, where would the Mavericks be without Wood’s 15 points on 6-8 shooting? They’ve only scored 43 points, and Luka Dončić has been off. Imagine how bad that offense would be if Wood wasn’t scoring well!

On the other hand, the Lakers are shooting 53 percent from the field, 9-14 at the rim, and 19-30 from two-point range. Oh, and they lead by 11 points. Oh, and Wood has the worst plus/minus on the Mavericks at -17. Those issues aren't entirely on Wood today, but they've historically been his biggest weaknesses. It's not like he's fixing those problems in this game, either.

That pretty much sums up the Christian Wood roller coaster.

(Photo: Troy Taormina / USA Today)

The absences of players like Dorian Finney-Smith and Maxi Kleber is further exposing just how poorly the Mavericks managed their free-agent assets this summer. The Jalen Brunson saga is well documented, but the other big move the Mavericks made was to sign JaVale McGee to the taxpayer midlevel exception. It was a curious move at the time and it has turned out poorly, with McGee playing so badly that he’s been entirely removed from the rotation.

The Mavericks first compensated for McGee’s poor play by putting Dwight Powell into the starting lineup. Then, they bit the bullet and inserted Christian Wood as the starting 5, a move that Jason Kidd was reluctant to make because of the defensive shortcomings it presents.

Those have been on full display with the Mavericks’ perimeter defense compromised. The Lakers have been getting whatever they’ve wanted in the paint so far, and LeBron James has dominated.

Perhaps that’s why Jason Kidd briefly went with a small lineup without any of those bigs on the floor for a stretch in the second quarter.

Luka Doncic and LeBron James need to go share a few glasses of red wine after this — maybe some festive Beaujolais given the holiday? Because they're both being asked to do a whole lot with rosters that, right now, don't have much else to offer them. The Lakers are playing a rookie with just 229 NBA minutes and the Mavericks have run out a player on a two-way contract with just 36 professional minutes.

As a result, this game looks precisely like you might imagine it to right now. It's not the greatest showing of NBA basketball we've ever seen.

Photo: Jerome Miron / USA Today

The King is up to 16 points on 8-of-13 shooting through just under a quarter and a half, with seven of his eight makes coming in the paint. Whether in transition, isolation or the pick-and-roll, James is easily getting past the first wave of Dallas' defense and being met with little resistance at the rim.