Luka Doncic had 35 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists and hit game tying 3-pointers in the closing seconds of regulation and in the first overtime to lead the Dallas Mavericks to a 119-115 double-overtime win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena.
The Mavericks improved to 24-19 with the win and snapped a two-game losing streak while the Lakers fell to 19-23 with the loss.
The Lakers rallied back from a 19-point first-quarter deficit and had a chance to win the game on a Troy Brown Jr. game-winning three at the buzzer but the attempt was aggressively contested by Tim Hardaway Jr without a foul call.
“It is what it is,” said Brown who finished with eight points and four rebounds. “That’s not my job to ref, and I’m not gonna sit here and decide who should have did what.”
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“I’m not one to blame the officiating, and I won’t start now. But it just looked clear as day like it was a foul,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “Maybe I can be wrong. But we were still watching it after the game, and it looked like a foul on his follow-through.”
LeBron James finished with 24 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists for the Lakers. Russell Westbrook had 28 points and five assists. Anthony Davis, Lonnie Walker, Austin Reaves and Patrick Beverley all were out for Los Angeles.
“There’s been a billion different lineups,” James said.
Christian Wood had 24 points, 14 rebounds and five key blocks for Dallas. Hardaway Jr. added 22 points and eight rebounds while making three 3-pointers and Spencer Dinwiddie finished with 17 points for the Mavericks.
Dallas led 59-48 at halftime and shot 50 percent from the field while holding Los Angeles 39 percent shooting from the field.
Doncic drained a three to tie the game at 101-101 with 6.0 seconds remaining in regulation and the Mavericks went on to outscore the Lakers 18-14 in both overtimes on 5-for-17 shooting.
“I was a little bit surprised (because) I thought they were going to foul, honestly,” Doncic said. “I tried to get it up before they fouled.”
“We knew we weren’t out of it,” said Hardaway Jr. “Anytime you’ve got (No.) 77 on the floor, you know there’s a chance.”
Los Angeles ultimately missed four of their final five shots and were unable to score in the most pivotal moments of the game.
James shot 9 for 28 overall and missed all seven of his 3-point attempts, including a three-pointer that would have tied the game at 118-118 with 20 seconds left in the second overtime.
“I work too hard on my craft to ever question any shot I take. Just an off night for me,” James said.
The Lakers will next host the Houston Rockets (10-33) on Monday evening at 7:30 p.m.
