Luka Doncic scored 34 points and flirted with a triple-double, and the Dallas Mavericks beat the Los Angeles Lakers 124-115 in their Christmas Day matchup on Sunday, December 25. Dallas outscored the travelling Lakers by 30 points in the third quarter to setup the victory. Click Here for full game stats
Doncic, who was double-teamed by the Lakers for most of the early parts of the game, endured a slow start to shot 9 of 16 from the field, while dishing out nine assists, grabbing nine rebounds, and picked up two steals. Doncic was registering 30-plus points for the sixth time over his last eight appearances.
Doncic, who was coming off a 50-point performance on Friday, was well supported to by Christian Wood, who finished with 30 points, eight reboinds, seven assists, four steals and blocked two shots for the Mavericks (18-16).
Tim Hardaway Jr. added 26 points, and six rebounds, while Reggie Bullock hit four 3-pointers in scoring 14 points for Dallas, which shot 52.4% from the field and made 18 shots from 3-pointers in the win.
Los Angeles led 54-43 at halftime on the back of a strong start by LeBron James strong start, but the Mavericks erupted after halftime to outscore the Lakers 51-21 to the Mavericks in an ideal position in third quarter. Los Angeles scored 40 points in the fourth, but wasn’t enough.
Meanwhile, James finished with 38 points, six rebounds and five assists in the defeat for the Lakers, who dropped to 13-20 overall this season. The were losing for the fourth consecutive game.
Russell Westbrook added 17 points with five rebounds and four assists off the bench for the Lakers, while Austin Reaves added 16 points in the defeat. No other Los Angeles scorer produced more than nine points for Los Angles, which shot 48.8%, but had just 18 assists on its 39 made buckets.
INACTIVE PLAYERS
LAL: Anthony Davis, Scotty Pippen Jr., Cole Swider, Juan Toscano-Anderson
DAL: Kemba Walker, Josh Green, Dorian Finney-Smith, Maxi Kleber
