Los Angeles Lakers – Dallas Mavericks · NBA

Win probability changed during the game. · 15 December 2021

LAL107–104DAL

Is it worth watching?

Highly recommended

It was more exciting than 98% of NBA games since 2017

· It was still open in the final minutes
· The win probability swung between the two teams 31 times
· It stayed close for almost the whole game

It measures how much the win probability moved during the game —without looking at who won or at the score— and compares it with the 10,950 NBA games with a curve since 2017. “Highly recommended” is the most intense 20%, “recommended” runs from 50% to 80%, and “skippable” is the rest. Source: ESPN.

↑ DAL winsLAL wins ↓

Home team's win probability across the game (source: ESPN). The band rises when DAL leads and falls when LAL does.

This is how the game was decided.

LeBron James decided it, the Los Angeles Lakers player with the most points (24, with 3 rebounds and 5 assists; -6 with him on the floor); the winner's best plus-minus was Anthony Davis's (+21). The criterion: the winner's points in the box score; plus-minus says who was on the floor when the game opened up.

The game-winner in Dallas Mavericks 104-107 Los Angeles Lakers (December 15, 2021) was hit by Austin Reaves: a three-pointer with 1.0 s left in overtime, putting the Los Angeles Lakers up 107-104. They never trailed again.

The biggest run of Dallas Mavericks 104-107 Los Angeles Lakers (December 15, 2021) was a 15-0 run by the Dallas Mavericks in the second quarter (from 11:03 to 8:12), from 23-35 to 38-35. The Los Angeles Lakers' best was a 9-0 run in the third quarter (from 8:41 to 6:14), from 54-57 to 63-57.

▸See where these figures come from

Play: Austin Reaves makes 25-foot three point jumper (Russell Westbrook assists).

I count as the game-winner the basket that puts the winning team ahead for good. Source: the official NBA play-by-play (since 2002-03) and each team's official box scores.

A run here is consecutive points by one team without the opponent scoring. Source: the official NBA play-by-play (since 2002-03) and each team's official box scores.

Source: the game's official box score and play-by-play.

Austin Reaves decided this game: his points put his team ahead with one second left in overtime 1, and the opponent never led again.

It is one of the 3 games he has decided this way in the NBA since the 2002-03 season.

His profile shows the games Reaves decided

▸See where these figures come from

A game is decided by the last basket that puts a team ahead in the final ten seconds of the fourth quarter or of an overtime, if that team wins.

15 December 2021 · The source is the ESPN play-by-play, play espn:401360244:701; the date is the one on the NBA box score.

Rotations · who was on the floor

Closing lineup · LAL

James · Westbrook · Davis · Ellington · Reaves

Closing lineup · DAL

Finney-Smith · Brunson · Bullock · Kleber · Hardaway

Q1Q2Q3Q4OT1

LAL

LeBron James

43′ · -6

Russell Westbrook

42′ · +8

Anthony Davis

39′ · +21

Wayne Ellington

38′ · +10

Avery Bradley

23′ · +9

Austin Reaves

32′ · +10

Carmelo Anthony

24′ · -16

Kent Bazemore

15′ · -19

DeAndre Jordan

8′ · -2

DAL

Dorian Finney-Smith

43′ · -12

Kristaps Porzingis

39′ · +2

Jalen Brunson

38′ · -8

Reggie Bullock Jr.

20′ · -10

Dwight Powell

14′ · -11

Maxi Kleber

33′ · +1

Moses Brown

4′ · -4

Tim Hardaway Jr.

40′ · +9

Trey Burke

22′ · +8

Josh Green

10′ · +9

Frank Ntilikina

2′ · +1

Each bar is a stint on the floor (source: NBA). The number is minutes played and the team's +/− with him on the court. LAL and DAL.

These lineups played the most minutes together.

Los Angeles Lakers

Westbrook, Ellington, Bradley, Davis, and James played 13.0 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 11 points.
Reaves, Westbrook, Ellington, Davis, and James played 11.1 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 9 points.
Westbrook, Ellington, Bazemore, James, and Anthony played 5.0 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 14 points.

Dallas Mavericks

Finney-Smith, Kleber, Brunson, Hardaway, and Porzingis played 11.9 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 4 points.
Finney-Smith, Brunson, Bullock, Powell, and Porzingis played 10.9 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 9 points.
Finney-Smith, Brunson, Hardaway, Burke, and Porzingis played 5.7 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 3 points.

▸See every lineup of the game

Los Angeles Lakers

Reaves, Ellington, Bradley, Davis, and James played 4.3 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 6 points.
Reaves, Westbrook, Jordan, Bazemore, and Anthony played 4.0 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 2 points.
Reaves, Ellington, Davis, James, and Anthony played 3.2 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 4 points.
Reaves, Westbrook, Davis, Bazemore, and Anthony played 3.1 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 6 points.
Westbrook, Jordan, Bradley, James, and Anthony played 2.3 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 4 points.
Reaves, Westbrook, Bradley, Davis, and Anthony played 1.8 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 1 point.
Reaves, Davis, Bazemore, James, and Anthony played 1.3 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 7 points.
Reaves, Westbrook, Jordan, Bradley, and Anthony played 1.1 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.

Dallas Mavericks

Kleber, Green, Hardaway, Burke, and Porzingis played 4.5 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 3 points.
Finney-Smith, Kleber, Hardaway, Burke, and Porzingis played 3.7 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 2 points.
Finney-Smith, Kleber, Brown, Hardaway, and Burke played 3.0 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 2 points.
Ntilikina, Kleber, Green, Hardaway, and Burke played 2.0 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 1 point.
Finney-Smith, Kleber, Brunson, Bullock, and Hardaway played 1.8 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 5 points.
Finney-Smith, Brunson, Bullock, Hardaway, and Powell played 1.8 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 1 point.
Kleber, Brunson, Green, Hardaway, and Burke played 1.7 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.
Finney-Smith, Brunson, Bullock, Hardaway, and Porzingis played 1.7 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 3 points.
Kleber, Green, Bullock, Hardaway, and Burke played 1.6 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 5 points.
Finney-Smith, Kleber, Brunson, Bullock, and Powell played 1.1 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 1 point.

▸See where these figures come from

The lineups come from the NBA's official rotation: who was on the floor and when. Each lineup's plus-minus is worked out from every player's stints and is only shown when they all add up with each other and with the final score.

Dorian Finney-Smith covered 4.81 km, more than anyone in the game.

Jalen Brunson touched the ball 100 times, a game high.
Jalen Brunson made 73 passes, a game high.
Kristaps Porziņģis defended 7 shots at the rim, a game high, and opponents made 1.
Anthony Davis had 23 rebound chances, a game high.

▸See what was measured for each player

Los Angeles Lakers

Player	km	km/h	Touches	Passes
Russell Westbrook	4.79	6.3	90	64
Wayne Ellington	4.23	6.3	42	32
Anthony Davis	4.18	5.9	79	49
LeBron James	4.18	5.5	98	71
Austin Reaves	3.91	6.6	43	35
Avery Bradley	2.75	6.5	33	26
Carmelo Anthony	2.65	6.1	27	19
Kent Bazemore	2.04	7.3	12	9
DeAndre Jordan	0.98	6.4	12	9

Dallas Mavericks

Player	km	km/h	Touches	Passes
Dorian Finney-Smith	4.81	6.3	48	35
Tim Hardaway Jr.	4.59	6.3	77	50
Jalen Brunson	4.55	6.5	100	73
Kristaps Porziņģis	4.22	6.1	78	48
Maxi Kleber	3.72	6.1	41

The figures come from the NBA's optical tracking (NBA.com) for this game; speed is each player's average while on the floor.

Who stood out on defense during the season

These figures cover the whole 2021-22 regular season, not this game.

Los Angeles Lakers

LeBron James drew 0.29 charges per game over his 56 games.
He ranks 8 of 386 in the league.
Anthony Davis contested 10.9 shots per game over his 40 games.
He ranks 10 of 386 in the league.
Austin Reaves drew 0.25 charges per game over his 61 games.
He ranks 11 of 386 in the league.

Dallas Mavericks

Jalen Brunson drew 0.22 charges per game over his 79 games.
He ranks 15 of 386 in the league.
Kristaps Porziņģis contested 9.6 shots per game over his 51 games.
He ranks 19 of 386 in the league.
Maxi Kleber drew 0.17 charges per game over his 58 games.
He ranks 24 of 386 in the league.

Hustle figures come from the hustle stats the NBA publishes (NBA.com) and rim defense comes from its tracking; both cover the regular season. For each player in this game we show the figure that ranks him highest in the league, and for each team, the three best ranked. Ranks count players with at least 30 games and, at the rim, at least 4 defended shots per game.

The Dallas Mavericks have won 69 of their 203 games against the Los Angeles Lakers.

69-134record of the Dallas Mavericks · NBA 1980-81 – 2025-26, regular season and playoffs

1-3in 2025-26

See the full head-to-head in the Analyst

See where it comes from

Official NBA box scores, regular season and playoffs, 1980-81 – 2025-26. It counts every game between the two teams that the house holds, this one included.

SportiveWorld knows much more about this game

Game context

Attendance

20.270

105.6% of capacity

American Airlines Center · Dallas

Scoring

211

combined points

10.2 below the season average (221.2)

⚖️ The last two minutes

Official NBA L2M report: every call in the endgame, reviewed by the league.

30 calls reviewed5 errors admitted by the NBA

Turnover: Traveling · 00:05.7

Russell Westbrook → Mavericks

Westbrook (LAL) splits his feet at the start of his dribble.

Turnover: Traveling · 00:11.5

LeBron James → Mavericks

James (LAL) gathers on his left foot and establishes his left as his pivot after lifting his right foot while stationary. He then lifts and re-plants his pivot foot before releasing his shot.

Foul: Shooting · 00:19.1

Russell Westbrook → Jalen Brunson

Westbrook (LAL) reaches across Brunson's (DAL) body and makes contact with his arm after he gathers the ball, which affects his driving shot attempt.

Foul: Defense 3 Second · 00:25.3

Kristaps Porzingis → Lakers

Porzingis (DAL) is in the paint for longer than three seconds without imminently actively guarding an opponent.