Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James saves the game and dominates OT

Check out our four lessons from the Los Angeles Lakers come from behind, overtime victory over the Dallas Mavericks.

The Los Angeles Lakers by all intents and purposes should have lost this game. Seriously. The Dallas Mavericks had the Lakers down by three with six seconds to go. Then LeBron James reminded people exactly who he is. Lake Show Life breaks down possibly the game of the year so far in Lake Show Life Lessons!

The Los Angeles Lakers should have lost this game. They had no business winning. All the Dallas Mavericks had to do was basically stay on the shooters and avoid the vaunted drive and kick play made famous by the San Antonio Spurs. Oh yeah, that’s right, Danny Green was on that team.

But first, let’s talk about the first 48 minutes or maybe the 24 minutes of a triple-double showdown courtesy of Luka Doncic and LeBron James.

The two both collected triple-doubles setting a record for an age difference between players with triple-doubles in the same game. This is a Lakers website but game recognizes game here.

Doncic fought off a possible concussion and bloody scalp after colliding with Dwight Howard‘s dental work to score 31 points, grab 13 rebounds and dish out a career-high 15 assists. The Lakers had no answer for a kid growing up idolizing James. He abused them time and time again with his handles and alley-oop passes.

Now this LeBron James dude. Understand he’s probably was in the locker room irritated he missed the free throw that would have netted him 40 points. Hey LeBron, from the Lake Show Life to you, it really does not matter. This performance makes up for the Clippers malfunction.

Why? Because when the man truly cares, he messes around and does things like this.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1190482104309571584

James blows by Delon Wright and drives the ball toward the basket. Danny Green slides over to the right corner and drops a 3-point shot with no time left to send it into overtime. He snatched the game from the jaws of defeat.

Two things need to be pointed out on the play.

Number one, what in the world was the Mavericks thinking collapsing on James when they were ahead by three points? They could have given up the basket to LeBron and the game would have been over.

Number two, Dwight Howard got away with a SERIOUS hold on Seth Curry which threw his rotation off to allow Green to pump fake and get the shot off.

James turned back the hands of time, collecting his second triple-double of the season with a stat line of 39 points, 12 rebounds and 16 assists. After the game went into overtime, Anthony Davis joined in on the fun as the combo scored every point in OT but one (Danny Green scored it!) as the Lakers outlasted the Dallas Mavericks 119-110.

Before we get to the good stuff, a Kyle Kuzma update.

Kyle Kuzma finished his debut for the Lakers with nine points and three rebounds in 19 minutes. Frank Vogel will have him on a minutes restriction for a while after dealing with a stress reaction in his right foot. Kuzma was active and played well considering this is his first game action all year-long. Welcome back Kuz, stay healthy.

Let’s get to Lake Show Life Lessons.

LeBron James says all the time he doesn’t listen to critics. After this game, no one will believe him.  

Ever since the opening night loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on opening night, LeBron was widely criticized (Lake Show Life included!) for coming up small in his much-anticipated showdown with Kawhi Leonard.

Stephen A. Smith probably will continue until Christmas when the Clippers come through to run it back. Others will fall back awhile after this game. At any rate, the man is listening!

This was the most dominant performance of LeBron James’ era in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform since he lit up the Miami Heat last year for 51 points in their building. LeBron was a physical presence on both ends of the floor. But nothing showed more evidence than this play right here.

Look, there will be plenty of debates on if this man has lost a step or not, but this round goes to the LeBron faithful. LeBron snatches a rebound on one end, outruns a Mavs defender on the court and dunks on him with two hands, swings on the rim and runs the other way. Nuff said. We move on.

Even though Anthony Davis filled up the stat sheet in this game, he was subpar until late in the 4th quarter. When the overtime started, LeBron James got him off with two straight passes that led to dunks. Then he somehow split Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis to score the basket and gain a trip to the free-throw line to effectively end the Mavs’ chances to win.

After missing his first two 3-pointers in the first half, LeBron James knocked down four shots from distance. Most of them were in rhythm and more importantly, needed to get the Lakers back in the game after being down ten at intermission.

Man, that LeBron James sure is good ain’t he?

Anthony Davis got his numbers but showed up fashionably late to the party.

This is a game that if a fan just watched the highlights and read the box scores, they would believe that Anthony Davis had a monster game. Nothing could be further from the truth. After this alley-oop dunk in the first minute of the game. He disappeared at times afterward.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1190448767863910400

Davis had a subpar game going through the first three quarters. He looked listless and was not the aggressive guy that destroyed Memphis the other night. But when it was winning time, Davis joined the LeBron James express in the fourth quarter and helped dominate overtime with the first two baskets after Green’s shot left the Mavs shell-shocked. Davis finished the night with 31 points, eight rebounds, two steals and two blocks.

This game was a perfect example of the advantages of having two superstars on a roster. If one of them is having an off night, the other one picks up the slack. Anthony Davis was there for LeBron against the Charlotte Hornets and LeBron James reciprocated for Davis in this one. When James and Davis figure this thing out and are both on for an extended period of time, the Lakers are nearly unbeatable, as they showed in overtime.

Think about it Lakers fans. AD had an uneven game and can still make highlight reels with plays like this.

https://twitter.com/Lakers/status/1190460552121765888

Well, the rest of the NBA has been warned by the Los Angeles Lakers on Twitter. Just a reminder.

Lake Show Life interrupts this Los Angeles Lakers article to show the Alex Caruso dunk.  

What’s scary here is that there are still players out there that sleep on Alex Caruso’s jumping ability. I guess some of the players need to get NBA League Pass or something. It’s no secret to Lakers fans, if you come light, it won’t turn out right.

Maxi Kleber was the next contestant of the new Carushow called “Too late!”

After receiving a quick pass from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Caruso blew past Jalen Brunson, Kristaps Porzingis got out-of-the-way and Kleber got some nice parting gifts for playing. People had better start respecting Caruso’s gangster.

Now back to our regularly scheduled article.

The Los Angeles Lakers were at times terrible communicating on defense. Especially when it came to constant lobs from Luka Doncic.

JaVale McGee‘s minutes are starting to dwindle as the games go by. Plays like these are why that is the case.

In this play here, McGee is caught way out of position for the defensive switch and Doncic noticed it. McGee compounded the mistake by fouling Porzingis for the 3-point play. McGee only played 12 minutes and is starting to lose minutes to Dwight Howard steadily because of his lack of energy and discipline on the defensive end.

https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1190467047173632000

Look, Luka Doncic will be a star in this league no question, so lobs will be his specialty. However, there were numerous breakdowns on defense in this game. Most of it was lack of communication on matching up in transition. Frank Vogel, again showed his coaching acumen finding the defensive formula to at least get out of Dallas with a win.

Next game will be in San Antonio on Sunday.