Lakers 'not good enough'

DALLAS • If the Los Angeles Lakers were not already aware, they have now entered crisis mode after sliding out of the Western Conference post-season positions.

The 2020 National Basketball Association champions fell to 11th in the West with an embarrassing 128-110 loss to the Mavericks in Dallas on Tuesday.

With LeBron James and Anthony Davis sidelined by injury, the visitors trailed by a shocking 82-56 at half-time.

It was the second-most first-half points allowed by the Lakers in franchise history - after the 83 conceded to the Celtics in 1959.

Such was their lead that the hosts could afford to coast in the final two quarters, leading Lakers coach Frank Vogel to sound the alarm after the game.

"Not good enough in any way," was his assessment after watching Mavs guard Luka Doncic ride roughshod over his team.

The All-Star scored 34 points with 12 rebounds and 12 assists, posting his 10th triple-double of the season.

Doncic said the Mavs, who are fourth in the West, knew they needed a quick start against the Lakers who, with seven games remaining, are fighting just to get into the play-in tournament for teams in seventh till 10th place.

"They're fighting for the play-offs, so we had to get out with aggressiveness and energy," the Slovenian said.

At 31-44, the Lakers have the same record as the San Antonio Spurs, but the latter are ahead on account of owning the tiebreaker.

They now have just seven more regular-season games to prevent their campaign from turning into a bust.

But five of them are against teams that have either qualified or are set to automatically advance to the play-offs - the league-leading Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets (twice).

Vogel said: "The standings are the results. We have to keep our focus on the process, and the work and the things that are going to lead to the next win. That's the only place that our focus will be."

However, the team's recent form does not inspire much confidence there will be an improvement.

The Lakers are 4-13 since the All-Star break, which is on pace to be the franchise's second-lowest win percentage following the glamour game.

"We just got our butt whupped. Straight up," said Lakers reserve forward Stanley Johnson, who had 16 points.

"So, whatever spirit or whatever, they kicked our ass. It was 30 points pretty much the whole game. I don't know how else you want to put it. We got to be a lot better than that."

While the Lakers lurch from one disaster to another, the Clippers, their cross-town rivals, strengthened their grip on eighth place in the West, which will give the team home-court advantage throughout the play-in tournament.

They were boosted by the return of seven-time All-Star Paul George after a three-month injury absence, with the forward scoring a game-high 34 points to help the hosts rally from a 25-point third-quarter deficit for a 121-115 victory over the Jazz.

The Clippers are now 41/2 games ahead of the ninth-place New Orleans Pelicans and George's return will give the team added impetus.

"It's a big morale boost (to have him back)," Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said.

"Guys were getting worn down and tired. We needed that."

George initially wanted to have surgery to repair a torn ligament in his elbow after getting injured in late December.

An operation would have ruled him out for the season but the doctor advised him to just let it heal naturally.

"I feel good," he said. "There's no pain. Thankfully, we went that direction."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE