Kyrie Irving scored 38 points in his return from a foot injury and Maxi Kleber made a 3-pointer at the buzzer as the visiting Dallas Mavericks pulled off a 111-110 victory on Friday to win consecutive games for the first time in more than a month.
Tim Hardaway Jr. and Christian Wood each scored 12 points as the Mavericks won without Luka Doncic, who has missed the last four games with a thigh injury but could be back Monday against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Mavericks (36-35) remained ahead of the Lakers (34-37) in the Western Conference standings while winning the season series between the teams 3-1. Dallas had not won consecutive games since a three-game streak Feb. 6-10.
Anthony Davis scored 26 points with 10 rebounds for the Lakers after missing Wednesday’s defeat to the Houston Rockets because of load management. Austin Reaves scored 16 points and Dennis Schroder added 15 as Los Angeles played its 10th consecutive game without LeBron James (foot).
The Mavericks closed the third quarter on an 8-0 run to take an 89-80 lead into the final period. Irving, who missed the previous three games, scored five points in the run.
The Lakers opened the fourth quarter on a 12-5 run to pull within 94-92 and grabbed a 97-96 advantage with 7:09 remaining on a runner by Reaves for their first lead since the second quarter.
The Lakers went up 107-102 with 3:16 to play on a jumper by Davis but did not make another field goal. The Mavericks pulled to within 109-108 with 7.2 seconds remaining when Davis fouled Kleber on a 3-point attempt and Kleber made all three free throws.
Davis made just one of two free throws with 6.7 seconds remaining before Irving found Kleber for the game winner as time expired. The Mavericks outscored the Lakers 9-3 over the final 2:48.
The Mavericks led 62-54 at halftime after shooting 57.1 percent. The Lakers managed to shoot 52.4 percent in the first half but made just 3 of 11 attempts from 3-point range and 7 of 13 free-throw attempts.
–Field Level Media
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