3 things after the Mavericks breathe a sigh of relief in a 118-97 win over the Los Angeles Lakers

Quentin Grimes, PJ Washington and Spencer Dinwiddie led the way in an improbable win on the second night of a back-to-back set.

Well, what do you know about that?

The Dallas Mavericks (21-15) dug deep and snapped their five-game losing streak on Tuesday with an improbable 118-97 win over the Los Angeles Lakers (20-16) at American Airlines Center on the second night of a back-to-back set.

Timely shooting, gritty defense and, sure, a little luck helped the Mavs close the deal. The Mavericks came into the game 0-10 without both Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving, but they snapped that losing streak as well against LeBron James, Anthony Davis & Co.

Quentin Grimes connected on a season-high six 3-pointers and led the Mavs with 23 points off the bench in the win. PJ Washington added 22 and eight rebounds, and Spencer Dinwiddie chipped in 19 more, with eight assists and six boards. After Davis scored 10 points in the first quarter, a gang of Dallas defenders held him to just 11 more across the next three.

Grimes, Dinwiddie and Washington combined to score 20 of Dallas’ 24 points in the first quarter. All the other Mavericks combined to shoot just 2-of-9 in the opening quarter. Dinwiddie and Grimes hit the Mavs’ only two 3-pointers of the quarter, while the rest of the team went 0-for-5 from beyond the arc in the first.

Defensively, the shorthanded Mavericks frontcourt had no answer for Anthony Davis, who scored a game-high 10 points and pulled down six rebounds in the first. He got to the line for five first-quarter free throws against the cavalcade of smaller defenders Dallas threw in Davis’ direction.

Photo by Tim Heitman/NBAE via Getty Images

The Lakers earned a 27-24 advantage after one on a step-back 3-pointer along the wing from LeBron James with 18 seconds left in the frame. James would finish with 18 points, 10 boards and eight assists in the loss.

The Mavs hung around in the second quarter at the free throw line, largely due to unforced Laker errors. Dallas was in the bonus with more than eight minutes to play before halftime and kept it close in what became a sluggish affair when Davis went cold from inside. He missed all three of his field goal attempts in the second quarter, including what looked like a simple drive against the smaller Washington, one he had converted twice against smaller Dallas defenders in the first quarter. The Mavs found a way to survive despite clear matchup problems, featuring minutes at a time of Washington vs. Davis or Jaden Hardy trying to stay in front of James.

The Mavs fell behind 50-44 on an emphatic Max Christie dunk from James with just under three minutes to play before halftime. That’s when Klay Thompson re-entered the game after a timeout and sparked an 11-0 Dallas run to end the half. He hit three unanswered 3-pointers of his own before Spencer Dinwiddie came open down the lane with the second-quarter clock winding down. His slam beat the buzzer, and Dallas took a 55-50 advantage into the break.

Washington and Naji Marshall got into the act early in the third, and Dinwiddie continued to make tough shots as Dallas built its lead in a methodical, workmanlike way. Washington’s first 3-point make of the night came on a play that Lakers forward Austin Reeves appeared to give up on and put the Mavs up 65-53 with 9:45 left in the third. To that point, the Mavs were shooting 10-of-22 (45%) from deep.

And then the Mavs’ outside shooting did something unexpected. It got even better. Hardy hit 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions late in the third, and Grimes knocked down a wide-open look from deep as well. The little 12-2 run put the Mavericks in front 83-68 with less than four to play in the third. Dallas carried an 89-76 lead into the fourth quarter and shot 18-of-38 (47.4%) from deep in the win.

Even after the hot shooting to end both the first half and the third quarter, though, nothing felt secure early in the fourth. How could it, with a Dallas bench this thin and against one of basketball’s all-time best closers, alongside an inside presence that no one on Dallas’ active roster could hope to match up with? But somehow, some way, those pesky little Mavericks had an answer for everything the Lakers dished out down the stretch. Grimes banged in his fifth 3-pointer of the game with under five minutes to play to give Dallas a 109-95 lead, and then he found Washington inside for an easy up-fake and dunk the next time down to make it 111-97 with 3:30 left.

Dallas outscored Los Angeles by 21 points from the 3-point line in the win and by 25 points off the bench. They also out-rebounded the bigger Lakers 54-38.

Thompson comes alive

Photo by Tim Heitman/NBAE via Getty Images

Ok, so this wasn’t a particularly big game (13 points on 5-of-10 shooting and 3-of-6 from 3-point range) for Thompson, but his hot stretch late in the second quarter fueled the Mavericks’ engines for the improbable second-half effort that led to the win. His individual 9-0 run gave the Mavs the lead for the first time since the 8:06 mark of the first quarter, and it was the first moment in this game when you truly believed Dallas could win. Until then, it felt like the Lakers were toying with the Mavs.

Thompson needed it, too. In his previous six games, Thompson was shooting 28-of-78 (35.9%) from the field.

Double-digit fails

The 65-53 lead the Mavs earned in the third quarter on Washington’s first 3-pointer was the fourth double-digit lead Dallas has seen in this current stretch of games without Luka Dončić. The Mavericks blew the previous three on the way to that dreadful five-game losing streak.

But these plucky little Mavericks are building character quickly, it appears. Grimes, Dinwiddie and Washington simply wouldn’t let the Mavs drop another game in which they held a double-digit lead. Heads may have started to hang had Dallas lost this one. But the Mavs live to fight another day.

All hands on deck

Look. Things are not going particularly well for the Home Five. The injury bug is digging in, and lately, the results have not been there. But this is a deep team and the guys who are carrying the banner are doing so with pride. Timely shooting like Dallas managed on Tuesday doesn’t hurt, either. As things got slightly dicey down the stretch, the Mavericks’ shooters always had an answer for the Lakers’ hot stretches. They had more than enough in the tank behind 22 points from Washington (9-of-14 shooting), 13 from Thompson (5-of-10), 15 from Hardy (6-of-11), and the game-high 23 from Grimes (8-of-17), who has become one of the most dependable Mavericks off the bench this year.

But I have to say something about Dinwiddie (19 points, 8-of-15 shooting) here. He’s always going to be hot and cold when he’s asked to play a larger role. It was a great night to find a hot streak, and Dinwiddie made plays early and often, sometimes with a hand in his face and other times on shots that were off-balance or otherwise questionable within the framework of the offense. But the Mavs needed every one of them in this cathartic win.

It’s ugly at times, but they’re playing hard, with a focused intention on staying connected to the playoff race until Dončić, Kyrie Irving and heck, throw Dante Exum in there, too, can return from injury. On the second night of a back-to-back set, no one would have been surprised if the Mavericks took yet another “L,” maybe even a lopsided one to the Lakers, who have been playing well of late. The Lake Show came in riding wins in eight of their last 12 games. But this rag-tag bunch from Big D had something for them on Tuesday. You love to see it.

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