This season’s Dallas Mavericks could write a book on 101 ways to die in an NBA game, and 75 of them would come from some combination of coughing up massive leads, mediocre late game execution, and weak paint defense. Sunday afternoon’s loss to the poor but retooled Los Angeles Lakers combined all three.
You would need octopus arms to point in every direction of why the Mavericks lost this game. But as Anthony Davis and Jarred Vanderbilt combined for 45 points, 32 rebounds, five steals and three blocks, one broken record problem came scratching through the speakers on Sunday: the Mavericks have no identity from their big men.