The Los Angeles Lakers came into Friday with a great opportunity to continue to gain ground in the standings as they faced the Dallas Mavericks, who were without Luka Doncic.
After getting out to a 14-7 lead, the Lakers fell behind as they couldn’t guard the 3-point line. Dallas got red-hot from downtown, hitting 9-of-15 from that distance in the first half as it went up 62-54 at halftime. The Lakers battled back from a 14-point early third-quarter deficit to come to within one with 2:21 left, only to see the Mavs push their lead back to nine at the end of the period.
Then came a big L.A. rally in the fourth quarter that put it up 109-105 in the final seconds — until self-inflicted disaster struck.
With 7.2 seconds left, it looked like it was about to get a stop, but Anthony Davis committed an ill-advised foul on Maxi Kleber, which resulted in three successful free throws. Davis was fouled at the other end with an opportunity to give his team insurance, but he made just one of two foul shots.
With 6.7 seconds remaining in the game, the Lakers were very cognizant of Kyrie Irving, who had 38 points. They trapped him and made him get rid of the ball, and he passed the ball to Kleber, who was partially open beyond the 3-point line as Davis was out of position defensively. Kleber then hit the game-winning trey just before the buzzer to down L.A., 111-110.
The Lakers ultimately only have themselves to blame for this loss. They shot just 19-of-31 from the free throw line and 25.0 percent from the 3-point line, and with a scant eight fast-break points, they failed to get the tempo in their favor.
The loss dropped them to 10th place in the Western Conference, although they’re still just two games behind the Mavs, who improved to sixth place.
If Los Angeles ends up missing the playoffs this season, it will look to this game as the one that got away.