The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a frustrating loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night. In the loss, the defense really let them down.
Coming into Saturday, the Los Angeles Lakers were playing some really good basketball. As winners of four straight games, the Lakers were attempting to get their first five-game winning streak of the season.
On the winning streak, the Lakers were playing really well on both ends of the court. The offense was certainly sparked by having Brandon Ingram take over the point-forward role, as he was really thriving. Also, the defense was playing quite well with Josh Hart in the starting five as well. With a lot of length and versatility defensively, the Lakers were able to switch on most screen and rolls, and not be in bad mismatches.
While on the winning streak, the Lakers only let an opponent score over 100 points once. That came against the Oklahoma City Thunder on the road, and with their firepower on offense, that is to be expected.
Against a Mavericks team that is one of the worst in the league and also not known for being an offensive powerhouse, allowing 130 points was shocking. After the loss, Julius Randle took some of the blame for the poor defensive performance. Here’s what he said via Spectrum Sports with text from LakersNation.com.
"“I think it was pretty much a lack of communication. We didn’t talk out our switches and stuff like that. We were in scramble mode the whole night and we didn’t do enough consistently. … No, that’s not on IT. That’s on all of us. We didn’t all bring it on the defensive end, and it started with me and Josh, I think. We didn’t talk out communication on reads. I’ll definitely take responsibility on that. I think it had a trickle-down effect the rest of the game. Just have to be better from the start of the game.”"
Against the Mavericks, the whole team just never seemed to get in any sort of rhythm on the defensive end. Dallas was able to get a lot of easy baskets in the paint on lobs to Dwight Powell, who had a great night.
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The Lakers will have a few days off before they prepare for their next games, as they will be facing the New Orleans Pelicans and the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road. If the Lakers want to make up for the bad loss, getting some road wins against good teams like the Pelicans and Timberwolves would certainly help.