For most of the fourth quarter, the Los Angeles Lakers prioritized forcing the ball out of Luka Doncic’s hands, sending a steady diet of double-teams at the MVP candidate and daring his Dallas Mavericks teammates to beat him.
The strategy worked, allowing the Lakers to rally from a deficit that had been as large as 19 points in the third quarter and take a three-point lead with seconds remaining. Doncic was scoreless for the first 11 minutes, 54 seconds of the fourth quarter — until he swished an overtime-forcing stepback 3 over Dennis Schroder’s single coverage.
“I was a little bit surprised,” Doncic said of not being double-teamed with the game on the line. “I don’t know why they didn’t. I thought they were going to foul, honestly, but I tried to get it up before they could foul.”
The Mavs eventually pulled out a 119-115 win in double-overtime in the Thursday night thriller at Crypto.com Arena. Doncic was spectacular throughout the game, finishing his 10th triple-double of the season with 35 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists. He also delivered another game-tying 3 in the last minute of the first overtime period.
“Big-time players make big-time shots. It’s that simple,” said Lakers star LeBron James, who had 24 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists but was 0-of-6 from the floor in the overtime periods, including a potential game-winning reverse layup at the first OT buzzer that was blocked by Mavs big man Christian Wood. (ABC)