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Shorthanded Lakers fall to Mavericks for 2nd straight loss

April 6, 2026

Lakers forward LeBron James (23) drives to the basket against Dallas Mavericks defenders John Poulakidas (1), Max Christie (00) and Naji Marshall during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Dallas, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

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DALLAS — The route the Lakers will have to weave through to extend their season to a point where Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves can both return will hardly be linear.

Doncic and Reaves represent nearly half of the Lakers’ per-game scoring totals. There’s hardly been a moment when neither have been on the court in the 2025-26 season, heralding the ball while running the offense.

And although the Lakers (50-28) fell 134-128 to the Dallas Mavericks (25-53) on Sunday evening – losing consecutive games for the first time since late February – the first of five games of mix-and-match, trial-and-error, fill-in-the-blanks basketball to end the regular season gleaned some of what Coach JJ Redick might rely on in the weeks ahead.

“Obviously, we ran some lineups that they haven’t seen all year,” said Luke Kennard, who recorded his first-career triple-double with 15 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists. “And when we were down, we stayed together, something we’ve been doing. Especially when we had that really good stretch. We’re still going to need that going forward.”

LeBron James expectedly led the way as the focal point of the Lakers’ offense as they clawed back from down 22 to bring the game within five points in the fourth quarter.

He scored 30 points on 12-for-22 shooting, to go with 15 assists — of 36 overall, the Lakers second-best mark of the season — as he battled with Mavericks rookie sensation Cooper Flagg. The former No. 1 draft pick finished with 45 points a day after scoring 51 points against the Orlando Magic on Saturday. 19 of Flagg’s points came in a stellar first quarter to grasp an 11-point lead.

“We didn’t start the game the right way and just played catchup the rest of the game,” Redick said. “Cooper makes some some jumpers early and what is the effect of that? … Just a poor defensive night and again we got to got to figure that out as coaches and give these guys the answers to the test in a better way.”

Kennard, who Redick said would become a part of the team’s ball-handling duties alongside a host of young Lakers guards – Bronny James, Nick Smith Jr., and Kobe Bufkin – tried his best to do everything for the Lakers while starting Sunday as Redick introduced his first of many new lineups on Sunday.

The trade-deadline acquisition completed his triple-double, recording 10th assist of the game on an alley-oop to center Deandre Ayton with 6:15 remaining in the third quarter. Kennard played a team-high 41 minutes, grabbing a career-high on the glass and tying his career high for assists.

Redick said that he needs to find a second consistent ball handler to lessen the load on Kennard’s shoulders to avoid the swingman playing upwards of 40-plus minutes, a season-high, like he did Sunday. James credited Kennard’s efforts to grab rebounds, of which he tallied 13 on the defensive glass.

Big man Maxi Kleber played alongside Jaxson Hayes (23 points on 8-for-10 shooting) as a traditional power forward in some lineups. Hayes cut the lead to five points with 4:22 to go in the fourth quarter, converting a three-point play while fouled on a two-handed slam. But the Lakers struggled to capitalize on Hayes’ fourth-quarter play.

Dallas forward P.J. Washington sank a 3-pointer from the corner on the following possession to re-extend the Mavericks’ lead back to 124-116. On the other end, LeBron James missed consecutive free throws from the line, which snowballed into a converted jumper from Flagg to bring Dallas’ advantage back to 10 points.

The Lakers turned the ball over 12 times on Sunday, fewer than their 14.4 per game entering Sunday, but the Mavericks made the Lakers pay for it, scoring 21 points off turnovers. The Mavericks shot well from beyond the arc, sinking 14 of 32 shots from 3 compared to the Lakers’ eight converted shots from long range.

Hayes said the key to finding success when running lineups without Reaves, Doncic or Smart, and at times, a LeBron James-less lineup, is making stops. On Sunday, stops were hard to come by with Flagg filling the basket as the Lakers’ responses never nudged the needle in their favor.

Washington, who scored 15 points for Dallas, was one of four other Mavericks to record double-digit points.

“I thought defensively we had some breakdown, especially in the first half,” James said. “We gave up too many transition points and then we allowed a lot of their key guys to get to their spots. We can’t do that, especially as shorthanded as we are.”

Bufkin and Smith played a handful of minutes in the first half each, bringing the Lakers to an 11-man rotation on Sunday as the South Bay Lakers lost in the G League Western Conference Finals without the handful of end-of-bench players promoted to the NBA roster for depth Sunday. Dalton Knecht and Adou Thiero did not play against Dallas.

Elsewhere in the NBA, the Minnesota Timberwolves lost to the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday, which means the Lakers can finish no lower than the fifth seed in the Western Conference. The Lakers, who are now tied with the Denver Nuggets (50-28), record-wise, own the tiebreaker over the Nuggets and the Houston Rockets (48-29).

They remain as the third seed before facing the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday back in Los Angeles.

Shorthanded Lakers fall to Mavericks for 2nd straight loss Orange County Register

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Shorthanded Lakers fall to Mavericks for 2nd straight loss

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