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.
