The Los Angeles Lakers, like in so many other occasions this season, were playing from behind on Wednesday night against the Dallas Mavericks. In fact, they were down by 20 points to start the fourth quarter, necessitating yet another herculean effort from LeBron James, which, heartbreakingly, came up short after the King faltered in the late stages of the game in what ended up being a 104-101 loss for the Lakers.
While there's plenty of factors to blame for the Lakers' loss to the Mavs (namely their poor defensive work and overall lethargy, turning the ball over 11 times against Dallas' four), star big man Anthony Davis pointed out after the game that the team simply has to stay the course on both ends of the floor even if they're not nailing their open shots.
“Our shot-making… we had a lot of shot-making that kinda affect some of us especially when the shots are wide open. You know, guys kinda get down on themselves. I mean, that's when transition comes into play, the miscues on defense, so regardless we're making shots or not, we got to be able to execute on the defensive end,” Davis said, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Of course, Anthony Davis himself must be having much better games than the one he had against the Mavs on Wednesday night for the Lakers to have a chance at winning against a tough opponent. Davis was mostly uninvolved in the Lakers' offense for much of the night. He shot the ball just three times in the second half to finish with 10 attempts overall; he ended up tallying just 10 points and 13 rebounds while playing more of a support role, which isn't what the Lakers need him to play.
Nevertheless, the Lakers were always going to face an uphill battle against the Mavs on Wednesday; even though they handily took care of business against the Utah Jazz on the first game of a back-to-back set, they still were facing a rest deficit, which definitely may have affected how Davis and the other Lakers performed in the defeat that gives them a 9-7 record on the season.