DALLAS — The Lakers should have known the performance the Dallas Mavericks put together on Tuesday night was coming. For no other reason, Coach JJ Redick essentially publicly warned his team what could happen if they took the Mavericks lightly with All-Stars Luka Dončić (calf) and Kyrie Irving (back) sidelined. Even with that high-scoring duo unavailable, Dallas is a deep team full of players who were ready to step up. And that’s exactly what happened – with the Lakers falling to the Mavericks, 118-97, to go winless on their two-game trip in Texas after losing to the Houston Rockets on Sunday. “In terms of the energy, it felt like we played a little tired [on Tuesday],” Redick said. “I don’t think it was a competitive level. They were the tougher team and dictated the game to us versus vice versa.” Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 21 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots, but he was uncharacteristically inefficient as a scorer, shooting just 7 for 18 from the field, missing a number of shots from short range. The Lakers, one of the NBA’s best rim-shooting teams at 70.3% entering Tuesday, shot 64% (16 for 25) inside the restricted area against the Mavericks, which Redick believes impacted his team’s defensive performance. “That’s just natural,” Redick said. “If you miss a layup, you get a little bit down in the moment, but I just think the overall effect of that and then, at times, they stalled us out a little bit.” LeBron James finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Austin Reaves added 15 points (5-of-14 shooting) and three steals, while Max Christie had 12 points and three assists. Dalton Knecht added 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting. But the Mavericks attacked the Lakers’ defense, getting the switches they wanted before taking advantage in isolation. “They had a great game plan versus our defense,” James said. “And then, obviously, they watched to see how we play. They put us in a lot of pick-and-rolls. If they broke us down, it was either get to the rim or spray out. Then they played drive-and-kick game and hit a lot of 3s.” James added: “I felt like they just put people in pick-and-roll who they wanted in pick-and-roll and they tried to exploit matchups. And when we got into rotations, we didn’t make enough second efforts.” Reaves was one of the players who the Mavericks targeted. “Just play better defense,” Reaves said when asked what he could do in those situations. “The first half was awful. The second half, I thought was better. But I can’t allow that. I was just really, really bad on both sides of the ball.” Redick was critical of the team’s rotations after the Mavericks broke down their defense. “I’m not sure what our rotations were,” he said. “I’d never seen us try to execute what we were doing. I haven’t watched the film yet. Just watching it live and talking to the assistants who did watch it on film we’re not sure what was going on with the shift positioning and the rotations. … Never seen it before.” Quentin Grimes was one of the players who stepped up for Dallas, scoring a game-high 23 points (six 3-pointers) to go with nine rebounds and six assists. Dallas shot 47.4% (18 for 38) from 3-point range, with many of them coming at opportune times and many of them wide-open looks. Related Articles Lakers | Gabe Vincent returns in Lakers’ loss to Mavericks, shoring up rotation Lakers | Lakers seek toughness ahead of game with depleted Mavericks Lakers | Lakers’ Jarred Vanderbilt continues to ramp up: ‘his progress is real right now’ Lakers | Lakers’ comeback attempt thwarted in loss to Rockets Lakers | Lakers’ offense humming again: ‘We’re figuring it out’ “We needed to be in our shifts and in our gaps,” Christie said. “And they did a good job of moving guys around, kind of moving our shifts out of the way and there was some miscommunication on our part to let up a 3 or two. Once they saw the first one or two go in, then they’re feeling really good and they’re going to shoot the next two or three contested ones.” P.J. Washington added 22 points (shooting 9 for 14 and making all three of his 3-point attempts) and eight rebounds. Former Laker Spencer Dinwiddie finished with 19 points, eight assists and six rebounds while Jaden Hardy scored 15 points and made a trio of 3-pointers. The Mavericks closed the first half on an 11-0 run, including a trio of 3-pointers from Klay Thompson (13 points), for a five-point lead then outscored the Lakers 63-47 after halftime. Dallas, which snapped a five-game losing streak, outrebounded the Lakers 44-33 and outscored them 52-40 in the paint. UP NEXT The Lakers start a five-game homestand against the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night.