Los Angeles Lakers start a tougher schedule against Dallas Mavericks, 3 Lessons

The Los Angeles Lakers were living fat and happy after their Thanksgiving feast on the Washington Wizards on Friday night. Things changed Sunday as the Lakers lost to the Dallas Mavericks. Lake Show Life breaks down the game with Lake Show Life lessons!

Well, it seems that the other shoe finally dropped for the Los Angeles Lakers. The team was playing with fire throughout the road trip with their uneven play despite sweeping all four games.

With the slippage of transition defense and rebounding totals, a game like this was bound to happen at some point. Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks probably thought the first matchup with the Lakers was a combination of luck and just plain giving the game away.

Either way, the Mavs staked a major claim to that theory after they snapped the Lakers’ 10-game winning streak, winning 114-100. After a strong surge of offense, in the beginning, the Mavericks stayed close despite little contributions from Luka Doncic on the offensive end.

A shout out goes to LeBron James. He knew the Los Angeles Lakers were in trouble at halftime. Before the team went into the locker room, LeBron James tore into a specific player on the floor about dogging it out on the floor.

The specific vote coming from the writer of this post-game report is Rajon Rondo. His play that has drawn criticism from Lake Show Life is starting to surface for all to see.

Let’s break down and clean up LeBron’s comments, shall we? Two of three things could have happened to set the “King” off at this point in time. One reason after halftime probably had his eyes really rolling!

• If Lakers fans have been paying attention to any of the games Rondo has played this season, they would know that Rajon hasn’t run a full sprint (Outside of getting the ball from any teammate that got a defensive rebound!) all season long. 
• He personally cost the Lakers 5 points in the 3rd quarter with bad defense, blowing an easy layup that led to a Doncic 3-point shot. The film does not lie Laker fans! Enjoy!
• Just before this impromptu team meeting, Rajon Rondo burned almost 8 seconds off the clock looking for the spectacular alley-oop play instead of making the simple play.  

Then “LeBronstadamus” turned out to be right because in the second half, the bottom fell out and the game was basically over. After coming out of the locker room with a 62-59 lead, the Lakers’ chances evaporated with a 22-5 run to start the third quarter.

At one point, the Lakers had more technical fouls in the quarter (2) than field goals (1). The second technical foul by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope sparked a 10-0 Lakers run (He sat down immediately afterward and Alex Caruso replaced him!), but Luka Doncic shut that down with the quickness. He almost matched the Lakers 17 points in the quarter with 16.  In other news, that quarter stands as the Lakers’ lowest point total in any quarter this season.

Avery Bradley would be the steal of free agency if Dwight Howard wasn’t playing so well (His contract is non-guaranteed!). Bradley was really starting to get his game together as a 2-way player before he got hurt. Since his injury, opponents have had a ball shooting from the 3-point line. The Dallas Mavericks shot 17-of-49 from distance. The Lakers? 7-of-27.

This is simple arithmetic here. The Lakers, with their front line, can destroy any team in the NBA. But they all have to be playing well. Dunks count as two points. With opponents outscoring the Lakers by 30 points from distance like in this game, the advantage is lost.

The shooters have been inconsistent all year-long. To put this in perspective, Caldwell-Pope has been the best 3-point shooter over the past few games. Over the road trip, teams were scoring from distance at a rapid rate. Dallas just continued the trend.

In games like this one, if the Lakers aren’t playing locking down defense or dominating down low, the team is vulnerable to bad defeats like this. It won’t take long to see if that is the case.

The Lakers jump back on the road for the next three games, with a Tuesday matchup against the Denver Nuggets. Let’s get to a more meaningful Lake Show Life Lessons than in the past few games.

Luka Doncic sent a limo for the Los Angeles Lakers in the locker room at halftime!

Why did he send a limo for the Lakers? He just wanted to make sure they made it to the floor so he could get his numbers. Boy, he gave the Lakers the business in the second half. After starting slowly in the first half, Doncic took over the game and a head injury didn’t save the Lakers this time around.

Coupled with listless defense from Danny Green and KCP, Luka Doncic had caught fire and it was time to get the women, children, Spike the dog and Fido the fish out quick.

Doncic dropped 16 points on the Lakers in the third quarter while showcasing why the Dallas Mavericks own the top-rated offense in the NBA.

Doncic finished one rebound shy of yet another triple-double, scoring 27 points, dishing out 11 assists with nine rebounds. He also had three steals. This guy is the real deal and he is an MVP candidate. LeBron James is on the list along with Anthony Davis, but this dude is a bad boy.

It’s stories like these that make covering the NBA great. What players do to inspire positive acts globally should be recognized and celebrated.

What most fans know about Luka Doncic is the flashy play and the step-back 3-point shots. What they don’t know is that he is making a huge difference off the court. After helping spearhead a ton of money in a fundraising effort for a child in Slovenia for medical bills, he met the child at the Staples Center.

Sure the NBA has had PR issues with China at the beginning of the season but that doesn’t cover the fact that many NBA stars (LeBron James at the top of the list!) make differences in many lives all over the world.

The Los Angeles Lakers lost but LeBron James showed something he hasn’t shown since he got to L.A.!

LeBron James showed something that fans haven’t seen in his time in purple and gold. He is showing that he really wants to win the NBA title this year. There is an urgency and if there are some stragglers that still don’t believe, mark this moment down as a defining moment.

This was the play before LeBron James exploded on his teammates. To be clear, this is not a good thing. IT’S A GREAT THING! Where was this dude last year?

James looks like he has figured out the dynamics of the power structure within the organization. Something that was not the case last year. He realizes that AD is the engine that will make the team go. But for this team to make it through a tough Western Conference, he has to be a real leader and not just the highest player on the team.

He set the tone early for the Lakers with a stat line of six points, five assists, two rebounds and three steals. The overall performance of the team was not his fault.

LeBron flirted with his own triple-double scoring 25 points, grabbing nine rebounds and collecting eight assists. For most of the game, he looked like he was the only one that cared, playing on both sides of the floor.

But he had his own issues too. Six turnovers are not going to help the cause over the tough road trip this week. There have been games that turnovers have been a premium. He has to clean this up.

After the Lakers went through the awful stretch in the 3rd quarter, the bad body language LeBron came back. There were instances where he threw his hands up with disgust and did not get back on defense.

Look, most can’t blame him for being irritated (The team really was that bad!) but it can’t show on the court. He’s got to take the good with the bad, the bitter with the sweet and the ups with the downs.

If you can party with the wins, you have to stay and clean up after the losses. Tired of clichés? Cool, let’s move on.

Bottom line: The Los Angeles Lakers played soft!

Take a look at the above picture because this what the Lakers spent their time doing while the Dallas Mavericks made their run. Complaining to the referees and not getting back in transition defense.

In the second half, the Dallas Mavericks showed that they are legitimate contenders in the Western Conference. That means they can withstand an early surge from the Lakers and not fold under the pressure.

LeBron had the Staples Center rocking early. AD hits Caruso with a no-look pass and the “CaruShow” was in effect.

https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1201253516729188352

But, this game brings back memories of opening night against the LA Clippers. The Mavs held up under the pressure and continued to play aggressively and that wore on the Lakers.

In the 3rd quarter, the Lakers found themselves begging for foul calls instead of matching Dallas’ intensity. The Lakers were outrebounded 51-45. That shouldn’t be even up for discussion with the size of the Lakers’ frontline. Just ridiculous. At last count, the Mavs outscored the Lakers 23-5 on second-chance points.

Get the picture here? Finally, this is an issue that needs to be addressed by Tuesday.

Alex Caruso deserves Rondo’s minutes. Period. Frank Vogel is going to have to get with the program here. The Lakers were a good team with Caruso on the floor while Lake Show Life is still looking for and piece of video where Rajon Rondo has played defense this year.

When the Lakers were getting killed in the 3rd quarter, Caruso knocked down back to back 3-point shots to spark a 10-0 run to get things somewhat close. Plus he plays defense? Lake Show Life had a discussion before the season about this potential problem. Who cares if AD loves this guy? If he wants an NBA title, Rondo has to sit.

Lake Show Life always states the moniker of, “This post-game is about this game. Nothing more, nothing less.” This post-game is about the upcoming road trip. Is this a freak out situation? No. The Lakers are 17-3 and tied with the Milwaukee Bucks for the best record in the NBA.

The Los Angeles Lakers will have to show what they really have with a much tougher schedule in the month of December. Have the Lakers faced poor competition this season? Sure. Take that up with the NBA commissioner, Adam Silver. That’s not the Lakers’ fault.

This is the time however to develop good habits and not fall into the trap of allowing the superstars to cover up major issues in winning against bad teams.

The Lakers travel to Denver to play the Nuggets on Tuesday.