Lakers continually having to erase huge deficit ‘not ideal’

A theme early in the season for the Los Angeles Lakers has been slow starts. Although the Lakers are currently 9-7 and have won six of their past eight games, they have developed a habit of falling early and needing to fight back.

That was the case again Wednesday night against the Dallas Mavericks, as the Lakers found themselves trailing by 20 points early in the fourth quarter. The Lakers continued to battle and eventually took the lead in the final minute when Kyrie Irving hit a game-winning 3-pointer for Dallas.

Led by LeBron James, the Lakers outscored the Mavericks 30-13 in the fourth quarter, which was great to see, although they would have been in much better shape had they played better in the first three quarters.

“We gave ourselves a fighting chance, but when you give up that many points, especially when you go into the fourth quarter against a strong offense, it’s a little tough,” James said after the game. “But I liked our last 12 minute defense. “We have to be better in the first 36 games. “

While it’s great that the Lakers have been able to overcome these deficiencies and have some big wins as a result, James points out the obvious when it comes to this approach to success.

“It’s not ideal, but it’s nice to have. But it’s not ideal.”

A large part of the reason why the Lakers were able to comeback in the fourth quarter was James’ performance. He averaged a league-leading 9.8 points per game in the final quarter. He explained why he and the team have been able to have so much success in the fourth quarter so far.

“Obviously, I love the fourth quarter,” LeBron said. “I just hate being put in a situation like this. “Just trying to see what we can do in the first 4-5 minutes and see if we can push forward and what we can do in the first 4-5 minutes and pretty much the rest of the game to this point. “

James was criticized for poor pass to Davis in deciding possession

Irving’s 3-pointer gave the Mavericks the lead with 21 seconds left, and James attempted an alley-oop to find Davis. However, it was a poor pass that ended up being intercepted by Luka Doncic, sealing the victory for Dallas.

James took responsibility for his passing and compared himself to an NFL quarterback.

“Keep it short. Keep it short. Read it right, like a quarterback would, and I kept it short. “I didn’t lead my receivers and it got picked off. “

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