The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a disappointing loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night despite the latter being without both of their All-Stars in Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Defense has been key to the Lakers’ success as of late, but they allowed the shorthanded Mavericks to score 118 points on 52.3% shooting from the field and 47.4% from 3-point range.
One of the reasons the Lakers’ defense has improved recently has been due to the insertion of Max Christie into the starting lineup. The third-year guard has done a good job of making things difficult on the opposing team’s top perimeter player, but in Dallas the Lakers just couldn’t get their defense together and Christie credited the Mavericks offense for that.