Depleted Los Angeles Lakers chase bounce-back against slumping Dallas Mavericks in NBA
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Rui Hachimura of the Los Angeles Lakers trying to fend off San Antonio Spurs' Victor Wembanyama during the Lakers' 136-108 home loss on Feb 10.
PHOTO: Getty Images via AFP
LOS ANGELES – After taking the court with a skeleton crew on Feb 10, the Los Angeles Lakers will aim to assemble a more competitive line-up when they host the Dallas Mavericks on Feb 12 (Feb 13 morning, Singapore time).
The Lakers were essentially without all of their starters in a 136-108 home loss to the San Antonio Spurs, with Luka Doncic (hamstring), LeBron James (foot), Austin Reaves (calf), Deandre Ayton (knee) and Marcus Smart (ankle) all missing in action on the second night of a back-to-back.
Doncic, who has been named a starter for the All-Star Game on Feb 15, missed his third consecutive contest with a strained left hamstring. ESPN reported that he will also sit out the game against his former team, but will hope to feature in the All-Star Game.
The Lakers turned to a starting five of Jake LaRavia, Rui Hachimura, Jaxson Hayes, Luke Kennard and Kobe Bufkin against San Antonio at the Crypto.com Arena.
They trailed 14-4 in less than three minutes and were down 47-30 after one quarter. The 84 points Los Angeles allowed in the first half were the most in any half in franchise history.
“Not a lot to take away other than, you know, we suck at defence,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said.
Bronny James played 25 minutes off the bench for the Lakers and scored a season-high 12 points.
“It’s just good to get out there and take advantage of the minutes I get,” said the 21-year-old, who played his most minutes in a game this season and third most in his two seasons in the NBA.
Before losing their last two games, the Lakers (32-21) were on a 6-2 run that started on Jan 24 with a 116-110 victory at Dallas. Doncic had 33 points for Los Angeles in the victory, while former Laker Max Christie had 24 for Dallas.
That loss triggered the Mavericks’ current eight-game losing streak.
Making matters worse for Dallas (19-34) is that Cooper Flagg has a foot sprain that will sideline him for this game and also will keep him out of the following day’s Rising Stars game during the All-Star weekend in Inglewood, California.
Dallas’ most recent defeat occurred on Feb 10 at the Phoenix Suns, where Naji Marshall scored 31 points and Flagg added 27 in a 120-111 loss.
The Mavericks are on their longest losing streak since the 2016-17 season.
“We got off to a slow start,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said.
“They were physical and we weren’t in that first half. I thought the group did a better job in that second half. Getting to the free throw line 44 times (but) we gotta be able to produce more threes. We just didn’t do that.”
The Lakers are 2-0 against the Mavericks this season with the teams set to play one last time on April 5 at Dallas.
In NBA action on Feb 11, Nikola Jokic garnered 26 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists against nine turnovers as the Nuggets held off the Memphis Grizzlies 122-116 at the Ball Arena in Denver.
It was the Serbian centre’s 20th triple-double this season and 184th of his career.
At the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Jaren Jackson Jr scored 23 points while Lauri Markkanen added 19 points and seven rebounds to lead Utah Jazz past the visiting Sacramento Kings 121-93. REUTERS
