New FSM Essential Recap: Lakers vs Mavericks - Game 29

New FSM Essential Recap: Lakers vs Mavericks – Game 29

Franchise Sports Media

Los Angeles Lakers (16-13)  |  Dallas Mavericks (14-14)

 

The Los Angeles Lakers escaped with their third victory in a row in a 107-104 overtime thriller against the Dallas Mavericks.

 

The scoring started with Dwight Powell throwing down an alley-oop dunk, while Avery Bradley answered with a three on the first L.A. possession. The game remained evenly matched throughout most of the first quarter until the Lakers began to turn up the heat late in the frame.

Anthony Davis extended the lead to six with a three-pointer while Austin Reaves added to the lead a minute later with a three of his own. Trey Burke successfully hit two free throws but was overcome by another Reaves three to extend the lead to 10. The first quarter ended with a 10-point lead for the Lakers as the score showed 33-23.

Carmelo Anthony began the second quarter with a mid-range jumper while Burke answered with a short jumper. Shortly after, Dallas shot out of a cannon as they rattled off 13 straight points to jump out to a three-point lead. Los Angeles fought back as LeBron James stopped the bleeding with a pull-up shot followed by a three by Reaves. Jalen Brunson tied the game and later put the Mavs ahead by one with less than four minutes left in the half.

Down one with 2:21 left in the second quarter, Dorian Finney-Smith drained a three to regain the lead for Dallas. Kristaps Porzingis followed up with an alley-oop slam on the following possession. Brunson and James traded threes at the end of the half as the buzzer sounded.

 

A rough second quarter put the Lakers down 50-47 at the half after a strong first quarter.

 

Brunson quickly picked up where he left off with back-to-back baskets to start the third quarter. The Lakers responded with seven straight points from Davis and Russell Westbrook to tie the game at 54. L.A. inched ahead after a Davis free throw, and James extended the lead to four with a three. Bradley added to the lead with a jumper as the score stabilized for the next two minutes.

Tim Hardaway Jr. began making noise late in the third quarter as he scored five straight points to chop the lead down, and Burke added free throws to put Dallas back ahead. Westbrook and Davis kept up the streaky back-and-forth setting to this game with paint points, while Hardaway Jr. tied the game at 67 with a three.

The game remained close through the rest of the quarter as every short-run the Mavs made was answered by the Lakers. The quarter ended with a three from Josh Green to make it a one-point lead for the Lakers heading into the fourth quarter.

Dallas got off to another fast start as Porzingis and Finney-Smith scored eight straight points to go up by seven. Wayne Ellington hit his first shot of the game from downtown while James laid it in to cut the deficit back to two. The back-and-forth continued for both teams as Dallas managed the slim lead up to the final minutes. Porzingis nailed a mid-range shot to give the Mavs a three-point lead. Ellington missed the rim, but Dallas couldn’t take advantage as James looked to tie the game. James’ three was off the mark, but Ellington faked out Hardaway Jr. and drained an open three with two seconds left to go to overtime.

 

In overtime, Davis got the first score a minute in with a turnaround fadeaway. Another minute later, Maxi Kleber put the Mavs back up by one with a wide-open three. Finney-Smith added two more points with a layup, but Westbrook responded with his layup despite tough defense by the Mavs. The Lakers reclaimed the lead with a layup from Davis and extended it to three after a steal by Ellington led to a James two-handed slam in traffic. Hardaway Jr. kept the fight going as a three-tied the game yet again.

Westbrook answered right back with a heavily contested fake out three in the corner to keep the Lakers ahead. Once the shot clock was off, the Lakers only needed a stop, but Kleber had other plans as a wide-open three-point attempt bounced off the backboard and through the net. L.A. had 15.2 seconds left to find one more score but had trouble getting a shot off. James tried a three for the win but was unsuccessful. Both teams went for the rebound as Davis won the tug-o-war and dished it out to a wide-open Reaves. Reaves heaved up a three, and the shot was good.

Time ran out for Dallas as 0.9 seconds wasn’t enough to get a shot off. The Lakers celebrated and mobbed Reaves on the court at the final buzzer as the rookie provided the hero shot to give the Lakers a thrilling victory over the Mavs 107-104.

Reaves finished with a career-high 15 points on the game, all via the three-point shot, while the big three of James, Davis, and Westbrook combined for 67 points. Brunson led all scorers with 25 points, while Porzingis scored 23 points and Hardaway Jr. scored 20 points.

 

The next game for the Lakers is a road matchup in Minnesota as they look for retribution against the Timberwolves for an earlier loss on the season. The game will start at 7:00 and can be seen live on ESPN and Spectrum SportsNet.

Lakers vs Mavericks                  Lakers vs Mavericks                  Lakers vs Mavericks                Lakers vs Mavericks         Lakers vs Mavericks                  Lakers vs Mavericks                  Lakers vs Mavericks                Lakers vs Mavericks         Lakers vs Mavericks                                                                                                               

 

– Matt Dobbs – Franchise Sports Media

Follow Matt on Twitter @RecordBowlerFSM

Follow The Franchise on social media

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube