Lakers come back to beat Mavs 111-108

0-138. That’s the all time record of teams in NBA history when they go down by 27 points or more. 0-138. Last night, history was made and that changed to 1-138. The Lakers had quite the slow start, going 0-10 from three in the first quarter and letting Luka Doncic go off for 14 first quarter points. Midway through the second the Mavs went up 27 and the Lakers were forced to use their fourth timeout in the first half. Things turned around from there.

By halftime Lakers had cut the lead to half being down 14 at halftime. Lakers came out strong defensively in the third to a point where they ended the third only down 3. This was mostly powered behind new addition Jarred Vanderbilt’s 4 steals and 8 offensive rebounds. Also near the end of the third there was a scuffle between Reaves and Green and Reaves followed it up with a huge 3.

Anthony Davis played like the generational talent he has shown he is capable of being dropping 30 points and one extremely emphatic put-back dunk over all five Mavs players on the floor. LeBron did have a scary fall that has led to him sitting out against the Grizzlies but he powered through this game and dropped 26 points mostly muscling his way inside.

Luka started the game with 14 first quarter points but only added a total of 12 more in the remaining three. This was mostly due to the strong defense of Jarred Vando who only let Luka hit 2 shots on 7 attempts when he was guarding Luka as the primary defender.

Overall, the Lakers came out weak but finished strong, proving to the NBA world they are legitimate contenders and should not be taken for granted. However, their success lies heavily on their health. They are already without their star PG in Dlo who sprained his ankle against the Warriors. Now they will also be without LeBron as he said he felt a pop in his foot and was limping after the game. Lebron will definitely miss a few games because of this injury. Hopefully the Lakers are deep enough to weather these injuries and find themselves in a playoff spot come April. Praying AD stays healthy during this extremely essential stretch for the Lakers.