The Dallas Mavericks got off to an excellent start against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday afternoon. The Mavericks led by as many as 27 points in the game and looked to be cruising to a victory with the Lakers struggling to get anything going on offense or present much resistance defensively.
But, when you have a team led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, you can never truly count them out. Those two put the team on their back with excellent contributions from Jarred Vanderbilt and Dennis Schroder.
After scoring only 16 points in the first quarter, Los Angeles erupted for 95 points in the final three quarters of the game. That spearheaded a truly remarkable comeback as they escaped Dallas with a 111-108 victory.
Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd did not hold back when talking about his team’s performance in the game. As the coach, there is only so much that he can do to stop a run. Eventually, it comes down to execution by the players and performance on the court.
“I’m not the savior here. I’m not playing,” Kidd said when asked why he used only one timeout in the second and third quarters as the lead was slipping away. “I’m watching, just like you guys. “As a team, we’ve got to mature. … We’ve got to grow up — if we want to win a championship. There’s no young team that’s ever won a championship, mentally or physically.”
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Jason Kidd, Dallas Mavericks & Los Angeles Lakers Updates
Despite knocking down 20 3-pointers in the game compared to only six for the Lakers, the Mavericks found a way to blow their lead and suffer a truly inexcusable loss. There is still plenty of work to do for them to become contenders in the Western Conference as chemistry and cohesion are still lacking between Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.
On the last inbound play that essentially sealed the Mavericks’ fate, you can see Irving motioning to Doncic expecting him to do something different when attempting to pass the ball into play. Things like that have to be cleaned up, in addition to Dallas working through calls they don’t agree with.
“Just focus on that play,” Kidd said. “Can’t get distracted with the whistle, and just keep playing. It just happens that way. We’ve seen a lot of basketball games. When you have big leads, you know which way the whistle is going to go.”
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Jason Kidd, Dallas Mavericks & Los Angeles Lakers Updates
With the current landscape of the NBA, no lead is safe. With how frequently teams launch 3-pointers and the fast pace at which games are played, large leads can be erased in the blink of an eye. Teams need to remain focused and diligent regardless of how big the lead is as it can disappear as quickly as it was built.
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