Los Angeles Lakers get swept in two game series with Dallas Mavericks

The Los Angeles Lakers finished up their two games series with the Dallas Mavericks. Anthony Davis playing was not the storyline but a buyout signing was. Ben McLemore was a late fill-in at starter and his contributions laid the foundation for a Lakers win!

The Los Angeles Lakers are starting to go in the wrong direction and thanks to getting swept in this two game series with the Dallas Mavericks, it’s time to start worrying a tad in Lakers Nation. After blowing a 17 point first half lead, the Lakers were beaten by the Mavs 108-93. Here are the facts.

• The Los Angeles Lakers have now lost three straight and six of their last ten.
• The Dallas Mavericks have now won three straight and are now one game in the loss column behind the Lakers. Why is that important?
• The Mavs now own the tie breaker over the Lakers with this win! 

The storyline going into the game was the ongoing monitoring of Anthony Davis’ progress of his workload from game to game.

According to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, Frank Vogel’s minutes restrictions was on AD was adjusted.

"As expected, Anthony Davis will play tonight against Dallas. Frank Vogel says that AD will play both halves and be on a 25-minute restriction. He says Davis is experiencing “minimal soreness” since he played for the first time in nine weeks on Thursday."

AD finished with 17 points (5-19 shooting!) and 3 rebounds. More on him later.

The good from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

Man Ben McLemore was shooting lights out in the first quarter!

Lake Show Life likes to make jokes about “Life comes at you fast” when doing post game reports. Ben McLemore was one of the success stories. When  Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was held out of the lineup at the last minute, McLemore was inserted in his place.

He was giving out the same production KCP has been giving as of late from the 3 point line.

McLemore knocked down four shots from the land of plenty for 12 points in the first quarter to get the offense to a strong start. Ben finished with a team high 20 points.

Frank Vogel made defensive adjustments on Luke Doncic by doubling him early and often.

The Lakers could have won a couple of nights ago had it not been for Luka Doncic dominating the game with 30 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals. With the absence of Kristaps Porzingis and Josh Richardson in this game, Vogel devised a defensive scheme to crank up the defensive pressure to frustrate Doncic. Boy did it work in the first half.

Bad passes out of double teams, complaining about calls and even a technical foul on Luka shows a weakness the superstar has. Physicality with the lack of offensive options can throw him off his game. The Lakers trapped him 12 times in the first half alone.

When Doncic was shut down, the Mavs offense went with him and the Lakers ran off to a huge lead in the first half. Let’s just say he wasn’t shut down long. More on that later.

Look Dennis Schroder is not worth $100 million dollars…BUT!

This writer will stand by anything he writes and the three options for the Lakers moving on from Dennis Schroder will stand if he wants more than what the Lakers can afford.

•  Los Angeles Lakers: Three offseason bailout plans from Dennis Schroder

But game recognizes game. Dennis Schroder has for the most part been unconscious since this article was posted. Schroder stopped telling the world he wanted a fair contract and SHOWED that he wanted a contract!

Oh…My…God!

Dennis Schroder finished with a double-double collecting 16 points and 10 assists.

The bad from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

The Dallas Mavericks adjusted to the Lakers double teaming Luka Doncic! 

The bugaboo for the Lake Show has been having bad quarters after halftime. After playing great defense in the second quarter, the Lakers let go of the rope in the third quarter letting up on the defensive pressure on Doncic. When that happened, Luka found a couple of hot players to get the offense rolling.

• Dwight Powell: Hit his first six shots in the game finishing with 25 points (21 in the second half!) 9 rebounds.  
• Dorian Finney-Smith: 21 points (7-12 shooting!), 7 rebounds (4 offensive!), 2 assists. 

Dallas outscored Los Angeles 33-21 in the third quarter to wipe out a Lakers lead as much as 17 points.

The 4th quarter!

The Lakers couldn’t score.

Montrezl Harrell didn’t play.

Trezl is this writer’s favorite player on the Lakers. Plus the Lakers could have used some of the buckets he tends to get in crunch time!

The story from the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss:

The Los Angeles Lakers are vulnerable to the pick and roll with Andre Drummond on the floor! 

The Dallas Mavericks killed the Lakers running pick and roll action with Luka Doncic and Dwight Powell.

• Luka would drive through the paint.
• Andre Drummond would be drawn up away from the basket.
• Luka lobs to Dwight Powell and the ball in thrown through the basket on slam dunks!

The Los Angeles Lakers 4th quarter.

Teams can’t win in the NBA scoring 14 points in the final quarter!

Anthony Davis is playing more minutes and he didn’t get hurt.

We could pull up Dion Waiter’s old quote about being 0-9 to make a point but shooting is not what AD and the Lakers are looking at right now. It is imperative that Davis gets his rhythm and timing down for the playoffs which is what is happening with each passing game.

Davis did get a knee in the right calf in the third quarter but it was no real issue. As long as these reports don’t have the words “aggravate” or “setback”, the Los Angeles Lakers fanbase should be satisfied with his progress.