With Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves sidelined due to injury, and with Marcus Smart still unable to return from an ankle injury, what’s left of the Los Angeles Lakers took the court on Sunday against a struggling Dallas Mavericks team. While the Mavericks were arguably even more short-handed than the Lakers, they have rookie phenom Cooper Flagg, who was coming off a 51-point game on Friday.
Los Angeles took a 22-21 lead with 4:28 to go in the first quarter, but it then gave up a 12-2 run and found itself behind 41-30 at the end of the quarter. It then surrendered the first 10 points of the second quarter, and it was forced to play catch-up the rest of the way.
While the Lakers made it a two-possession game a few times in the second half and even came to within two points early in the third quarter, they were never able to fully hold Dallas back. Their defense was weak throughout the game, and it resulted in a 134-128 loss.
They actually outrebounded Dallas by 11, outscored Dallas in the paint by 12 and had nine more assists, but they allowed Dallas to shoot 43.8% from 3-point range while going 8-of-27 from that distance themselves. The Lakers did a solid job of protecting the basketball by committing only 12 turnovers, but Dallas scored 21 points off those turnovers. Flagg put up 45 points and made 15 of his 17 free throw attempts, and he was two rebounds and one assist away from a triple-double.
The Lakers now have a 50-28 record and are tied in the standings with the Denver Nuggets. While they’re still in third place in the Western Conference since they own the tiebreaker, their hold over that spot has loosened considerably.
Luke Kennard: B-minus
The Lakers need an all-hands-on-deck effort with Doncic and Reaves out, which means Kennard needs to be more aggressive in looking for his shot while maintaining his efficiency. While he was certainly aggressive on Sunday, he had trouble hitting shots.
He went 5-of-17 from the field and 1-of-5 from beyond the arc, giving him 15 points in 41 minutes. He did, however, make an admirable effort in other departments. He dished off 11 assists and grabbed 16 rebounds, giving him the first triple-double of his NBA career.
Jake LaRavia: D-plus/C-minus
LaRavia was another complementary player who didn’t pull his weight in this game. He was also 1-of-5 from 3-point land, and overall, he made just three of his 11 shot attempts. In 36 minutes, he had 14 points, five rebounds, one assist and two steals, and he wasn’t able to do much, if anything, defensively against Flagg.
Rui Hachimura: A
Hachimura certainly did what he needed to do in this game. He scored a dozen points in the first quarter, and he ended up with 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting while making three of his five 3-point tries. He also got seven rebounds and added one assist and one steal in 39 minutes.
Deandre Ayton: C-plus/B-minus
Ayton didn’t score his first basket until early in the third quarter. He scored 10 points in the period, but the fact that he had only three points in the first half hurt the Lakers’ ability to at least stay within striking distance during the early portion of this game.
He didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter, and in 19 total minutes, he had 13 points, four rebounds, one assist and one block.
LeBron James: A-minus
James reverted back to his customary leading man role after being the Lakers’ third scoring option for much of this season. He had little trouble making that adjustment, as he scored 22 points and made nine of his 11 shot attempts in the first half, with 16 of those points came in the second quarter.
He looked to set up his teammates more after halftime, and 11 of his 15 assists came in the second half. But he was quiet in terms of scoring during that time, and he missed three free throws in the final 3:50 of the game that could’ve given the Lakers a real shot at victory.
Still, his main offensive numbers were strong: 30 points on 12-of-22 overall shooting. He did miss five of his six 3-point attempts, but his nine rebounds did help L.A.’s cause.
Jaxson Hayes: A
Hayes did just about all he could to help out in this game. He played 27 minutes and made eight of his 10 shot attempts and seven of his eight free throw attempts to score 23 points, which tied his career high in scoring. In his spare time, he also contributed four rebounds and two assists.
Jarred Vanderbilt: D
The Lakers could’ve used an energetic version of Vanderbilt in this contest. Instead, he seemed almost invisible. He played 12 minutes and scored five points and had one rebound and one assist.
Maxi Kleber: C
Kleber got 13 minutes of playing time in this game. He made one of his two shot attempts and finished with two points, one rebound, three assists and one steal.
Bronny James: B-minus
The Lakers are going to need some positive production from the younger James if they are to survive while Doncic and Reaves are out of action. On Sunday, he played nine minutes and hit two of his three field-goal attempts, including a 3-pointer, giving him five points, to go along with one assist.
Kobe Bufkin, Nick Smith Jr.: Incomplete
Bufkin got three minutes of playing time, while Smith was on the court for two minutes. Both went scoreless and had one rebound apiece.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers player grades: L.A. falls short to Cooper Flagg and Mavericks