Winless Summer League: Mavericks Fall To Lakers 95-84

The Mavericks made a strong comeback, but ultimately fell short to the Lakers.

Coming off of a double-digit loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Dallas Mavericks hoped to get their first win of Summer League against the Los Angeles Lakers at the Thomas and Mack Center on Saturday night. However, that didn’t happen, as the Lakers beat the Mavs, 95-84, dropping Dallas to 0-5 to conclude Summer League play.

A.J. Lawson, who is a Mavs two-way contract candidate, led all scorers with 19 points. Lawson continued his hot Summer League shooting from 3, finishing the game shooting 3-4.

The Mavs started the first quarter very slowly. There were several turnovers and an overall lack of effort on the defensive end. Poor rotation defensively, stagnant ball movement offensively, and a lack of consistency shooting saw the Mavs trailing 26-16 at the end of the first quarter.

Dallas needed someone to get into a rhythm offensively in the second quarter. There seemed to be a bit of a spark by Jaden Hardy at that point, scoring all of his nine points in the game in the quarter.

Hardy scored on three straight possessions. His first bucket came on an aggressive drive to the basket, followed by a mid-range jumper that fell. Finally, he nailed a catch-and-shoot 3. It looked as though the Mavs were going to make a run, however, several more turnovers (11 in total for the half) let the Lakers go into the half up 58-38.

Do ya thing, rook 😎 pic.twitter.com/2jiQ9mRZyN

— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) July 17, 2022

The Mavs came out in the third on fire offensively, sparking an 11-2 run. They would see shots from the outside fall for AJ Lawson, Moses Wright, and Jerrick Harding. Lawson lit it up from 3 going 3-3 to start the game. The Mavs also began to apply some defensive pressure to the Lakers' guards, which caused some fast break buckets as well off of the turnovers.

After multiple runs in the third quarter, sparked by their defensive efforts, and consistent ball movement saw the Mavs climb back into the game. It was a great quarter for Marcus Bingham Jr. as he would contribute nine points in the quarter by continuously attacking the basket. The Mavs trailed going into the fourth, outscoring the Lakers 26-19, however, trailed at the end of the quarter 77-64.

The Mavs climbed back into the game, cutting the lead to six to start the game. The team seemed to be feeding off of the intensity of the head coach of this game for the Mavs, Jared Dudley. Dudley was imploring the Mavs to play as a team, and was pushing up the intensity on the defensive end each possession.

Bingham Jr. continued to alter shots at the rim for the Mavs. He switched on defense effectively, and time after time met the Lakers in the paint, forcing some wild shots. However, the Mavs seemed to run out of gas from coming back from behind so much. Ultimately the Mavs would fall to the Lakers by double digits.

With the loss, The Mavs finished Summer League play with a 0-5 record. This is the last official Mavs' on-court action until training camp begins in September, followed by preseason and regular season play in October.