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Lakers erase 20-point 4th-quarter deficit, but Mavericks edge them late

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LOS ANGELES — The harsh demands of the NBA’s regular-season schedule looked like they caught up with the Lakers on Wednesday night.

Playing their third game in four nights and sixth in nine days, there was a notable energy and precision dropoff in their 104-101 home loss to the Dallas Mavericks compared to Tuesday’s In-Season Tournament victory over the Utah Jazz.

The defensive rebounding wasn’t crisp in the first three quarters (nine offensive rebounds allowed in the first 36 minutes). The shotmaking waned, including several missed layups.

They weren’t as effective with getting in the passing lanes and forcing turnovers as they had been over the past 1½ weeks – an area where the absence of Cam Reddish (left adductor soreness) was most felt.

Still, the Lakers, the league’s best fourth-quarter team entering Wednesday, did what they’ve done frequently this season: play their best basketball in the final frame.

The Lakers, who trailed 91-71 to begin the fourth quarter, erased their 20-point deficit when Austin Reaves hit a floater to tie the score at 99-all with less than two minutes remaining. One possession later, LeBron James tipped in a putback off Reaves’ missed floater to punctuate a 30-8 run and give the Lakers a 101-99 lead with 1:16 left – their first lead since 23-21 in the first quarter.

But they didn’t close out from there. After Luka Doncic and James traded missed 3-point attempts in the final minute, Kyrie Irving made a go-ahead 3-pointer to give the Mavericks a 102-101 lead with 22 seconds left. James attempted to assist Anthony Davis on the Lakers’ ensuing possession but Doncic tipped the pass to force a turnover with four seconds left.

“I left it a little short,” James said. “Left it a little short. The right read, just as the quarterback, I just left it short. I didn’t lead my receiver and I got picked off.”

Irving made a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 104-101 with three seconds left. James missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer from the corner as time expired to seal the loss for the Lakers (9-7), just their second defeat in nine home games this season.

“It’s tough,” Coach Darvin Ham said. “To put yourself behind the eight-ball like that over the first three quarters. We could’ve easily folded the tent, especially after having played the night before. But like I told my guys, we don’t believe in moral victories around here. As I said before starting last year, it’s not just wins and losses – there [are] wisdoms and lessons. We got a lesson [Wednesday].”

The Lakers, who had won six of seven games over the past two weeks, missed five of their six free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter.

“We gave ourselves a fighting chance, but it’s kind of tough when you go down that many points,” said James, who finished with 26 points (16 in the fourth), nine rebounds and seven assists in 36 minutes. “I liked our defense in the last 12 minutes. We’ve just got to be better for the first 36.”

Reaves had 17 points (7-of-14 shooting), six assists and six rebounds in 31 minutes off the bench. D’Angelo Russell added 15 points and five assists while Davis had 10 points (4-for-10 shooting), 13 rebounds and four assists. Davis went scoreless in the second half, missing all three of his field goal attempts in the final two quarters.

“We had a shot to win the game,” Davis said. “We got back in it with our defense in the fourth quarter, and (we) made some big-time shots. … We don’t celebrate moral victories, but we’re a resilient team that will be fighting ’til the end.”

Ham made no excuses but some of the Lakers’ most dependable strengths this season were less reliable Wednesday at the end of a busy stretch of games.

“It’s an 82-game season. There’s going to be nights where it’s not your night,” Ham said. “We missed a bunch of bunnies early. I quoted the stat: at halftime, we had missed five point-blank shots at the rim and 15 total in the paint. And those are shots we normally make. For whatever reason, they didn’t go down and that was part of us facing a deficit through three quarters.”

Doncic (30 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists) and Irving (28 points, six rebounds) combined for 58 points for the Mavericks (10-5), who missed 16 of their 19 shots in the fourth quarter. Josh Green added 15 points off the bench.

“The way we fought from down in the fourth quarter, fought back and gave ourselves a chance, that’s what you draw from that game,” Ham said. “That’s a lesson you draw from it. I’m proud of our guys, the character they showed, the competitive spirit they showed, stepping up like they did, facing a huge deficit and having 12 minutes to try to make something out of it. And we did that. So we came up a little bit short. It’s disappointing but not discouraging.”

The Lakers will get a couple of days off before starting a four-game road trip against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday.