LOS ANGELES — Unlike any number of basketball teams licking their wounds this March, the buzzer-beater that came crashing through the Lakers’ hearts on Friday night didn’t actually end their season.
That doesn’t mean Maxi Kleber’s last-second 3-pointer, giving the Dallas Mavericks a 111-110 win and sending them dog-piling on the Lakers’ home floor, didn’t deal a serious wound to their postseason hopes, not to mention their pride.
“It was devastating for sure,” forward Wenyen Gabriel said, “and took the breath out of all of us.”
Leading by four points with eight seconds left, the Lakers appeared to be on the verge of securing a much-needed win that would bring them closer to the top-six playoff spot they’ve long desired but to which they’ve rarely been this close. Stunningly, Anthony Davis made three critical errors that all but assured one of the team’s worst collapses of the season.
Davis fouled Kleber on a hard closeout of his 3-point attempt with 7.2 seconds left, allowing the visitors to pull within a point via the free-throw line. Then, after being fouled on the ensuing inbounds play, Davis missed the first of two free throws, giving the Mavericks a chance to win with 6.7 seconds remaining.
Dallas spiked that opportunity back in the Lakers’ faces: A double-teamed Kyrie Irving fired a pass to an open Kleber on the wing, and the German drilled the game-winning 3-pointer in Davis’ face. On that play, too, Davis admitted he erred, certain that Irving would take the final shot and focusing all energy on him.
“When he goes up, it kind of pulled me in,” Davis said. “I was going for the rebound, thinking he was shooting it. Then he made a pass to Kleber. And he makes a shot.”
Coming in with a chance to pull to an even record with the Dallas team directly ahead of them in the standings, the Lakers (34-37) instead dropped to 10th place in a Western Conference standings battle where every loss down the stretch stings even more. They missed 12 of their 31 free throws and couldn’t make a field goal in the final 3:16, the loss also costing them a tiebreaker against Dallas, which could be a headache down the road.
Davis led the Lakers with 26 points and 10 rebounds, critically part of the reason why they were up at all in the fourth quarter after a long game spent chasing. Irving had a game-high 38 points in a return from foot soreness. Davis said he told the locker room that the loss was his fault, but the Lakers have no choice but to look ahead.
“At the end of the day, there’s nothing we can do about it, to be honest. It happened,” he said. “Our focus is now Sunday, trying to get a win against Orlando. But this one is tough, the way it ended.”
It was shaping up to be a gritty win, on a night when the Lakers’ 3-point shooting (5 for 20) was nearly a non-factor.
Coach Darvin Ham leaned on the backcourt bench tandem of Dennis Schröder (15 points) and Austin Reaves (16 points), who weren’t deadeye shots but came through at critical moments, especially in the fourth quarter. Schröder had back-to-back baskets to open the final period, helping cut into the nine-point lead the Mavericks built with an 8-0 run to end the third. Reaves dazzled with a baseline drive and a floater finish through a foul from Justin Holiday midway into the fourth.
But Ham’s biggest bet was an unconventional lineup with Davis, Gabriel and three guards. According to stat site Cleaning the Glass, Davis and Gabriel had only played 122 possessions together entering the game. But with both their centers playing side by side, the Lakers were able to play off their mobility and length and hold the Mavericks to just 22 fourth-quarter points.
“He was really handsy, getting deflections, kind of interrupting that,” Reaves said. “And then on the other end, being a beast on the glass. So that’s kind of what the feel was for me at least. And I thought he was bringing us a lot of energy, a lot of effort, and we just kinda stuck with it and put ourselves in a good position.”
As much as the final eight seconds were decided by Davis’ mistakes, the Lakers had to eat other problems as a team. The most glaring for Ham was the 19-for-31 mark at the free-throw line. They shot 12 more free throws than the Mavericks but made only four more.
“We did the job we wanted, we seek out to do every game, and that’s win the free-throw line,” Ham said. “We got 31 attempts but you got to make more than 19. We make our free throws, we’re probably not having this conversation.”
Unfortunately for the Lakers, they’ve had this conversation many times. Earlier in the season, the Indiana Pacers erased a 17-point lead and won on a buzzer-beater. Overall, the Lakers are 19-21 in games that are within five points in the final five minutes, a middle-of-the-pack winning percentage that has led to their middle-of-the-pack status in the West as well. The Lakers lost back-to-back games for the first time since the early February trade deadline, a mark they had become increasingly proud of.
The Lakers of Wednesday’s loss to the Houston Rockets looked listless and clueless in the game’s start. But on Friday, it was clear they at least had a plan: Moving the ball methodically around the court and into the post, the Lakers were more deliberate in getting the ball to Davis and Rui Hachimura early for looks against a questionable Dallas defense.
But it didn’t matter all that much as the Mavericks attacked the Lakers’ own weakness: an inability to track shooters. Early bursts from Reggie Bullock and Davis Bertans paced an effort that saw the second-best 3-point shooting team since the All-Star break (40.5%) rack up a 9-for-15 mark from behind the arc.
The Mavericks also broke down the Lakers’ defense with the zig-zagging dribble drives of Irving and Christian Wood, who defied any one-on-one defender no matter the effort.
The Lakers’ own shooting was anemic by comparison: They started 4 for 16 from 3-point range, and D’Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley – the heroes in a Tuesday victory over New Orleans – were a combined 0 for 9 from behind the arc. When the Mavericks took a nine-point lead toward the end of the first half, Ham called a frustrated timeout.
Things weren’t much better in the third quarter when Dallas led by as much as 14. But the bench-led lineup pushed back, closing it to a point twice.
Close isn’t cutting it anymore, not with the season on the line. They’re not at the point where a team can end their postseason dreams with a single shot, but the Lakers understand that their situation is precarious all the same.
“The mood is obviously … down,” Reaves said. “Just because you lose a tough one, and one we really wanted, one we needed. We need ’em all from here on out.”
Maxi Kleber sinks the CLUTCH triple to lift the @dallasmavs to the win ????#TissotBuzzerBeater | #TimingEmotions pic.twitter.com/WiFSpMLG8o
— NBA (@NBA) March 18, 2023
“It’s tough all across the board.” @AntDavis23 on the Lakers failing to gain ground in the standings and his miscues down the stretch. pic.twitter.com/iGTic1VzfV
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) March 18, 2023
“We make our free throws we’re probably not having this conversation.” Darvin Ham on the final sequence of the game. pic.twitter.com/atemtvkwjA
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) March 18, 2023
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