As bad and costly as the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday was, their contest on Tuesday against the Dallas Mavericks was even uglier.
L.A. never led in this one, as Dallas jumped out to an 8-0 lead, and the Lakers were never able to stem the tide.
Granted, the Lakers were without LeBron James due to a sprained ankle, but the way they lost was still inexcusable.
Luka Doncic simply tore apart the Lakers’ attempts at playing defense, and he made it look easy, whether he was running the pick and roll, setting up teammates, slashing to the hoop or shooting his patented step-back 3-pointer.
To put it more accurately, the Lakers played no NBA-level defense to speak of.
They allowed Dallas to put up 82 first-half points and make it rain from downtown all game long.
The 128-110 final score was not indicative of how lopsided this farce of an NBA game really was.
L.A. has now fallen out of the play-in tournament picture, as it now sits in 11th place in the Western Conference. It is tied with the San Antonio Spurs, but the Spurs hold the tiebreaker.