(Photo by Stephen Chambers/Getty Images)
The Los Angeles Lakers entered the fourth quarter against the Dallas Mavericks trailing by 20 points and the game seemed out of reach. The Lakers are in the second game of back-to-back games and did not play aggressively in the first three quarters.
However, instead of picking up the pieces tonight, the Lakers continued to fight and launched a fierce counterattack in the fourth quarter. The Lakers fought hard and took the lead in the final moments, but failed to tie the score.
With the Mavericks trailing by two points, Kyrie Irving hit a three-pointer with 21 seconds left to give the Mavericks a one-point lead. The Lakers chose not to call a timeout because Davon Ham didn’t want Dallas to bring in a defense-first player.
LeBron James has the ball with Irving guarding him, but he’s ready to double-team in the low post if Richaun Holmes drives into the lane. Seeing this, James elected to throw an alley-oop to Anthony Davis, who had Luka Doncic next to him.
However, James’ pass was poor, Holmes caught the ball, and Doncic completed the steal, ultimately costing the game.
After the game, James took responsibility for his poor passing.
“Keep it short. Keep it short,” James said. “Read right, like a quarterback, I kept it short. “I didn’t lead my receivers and got picked off. “
Davis also explained his strengths in this game. “This is the play we’ve been playing,” he said.
“Holmes was going to double-team, and I just flashed in front of the rim and we usually get that lob. But when Brown threw the ball, he backed up a little bit and got a piece of the ball. And then Luka did after Holmes gave it to him. Got a piece and we all touched it afterwards. But Holmes just touched the ball with one or two fingers.”
While the Lakers unfortunately struggled, James loved their counterattack, especially locking down the defensive end of the court.
“We gave ourselves a fighting chance, but when you give up that many points, it’s a little difficult, especially when you go into the fourth quarter against a great offense. But I liked the way our defense played the last 12 minutes. “We have to Better in the first 36 games. “
Still, poor starts have become a theme for the Lakers this season, and LeBron knows that having to come back easily isn’t a habit they want to develop.
“It’s not ideal, but it’s nice to have. But it’s not ideal.”
James discusses fourth quarter scoring
James has performed well in the fourth quarter this season, leading the league with 9.8 points per game. He scored 13 points in the final quarter against Dallas and discussed why he tried to push forward even after trailing by 20 points.
“Obviously, I loved the fourth quarter. I just hate being in that situation that we were in. “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 do that. “
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