Wednesday night’s game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks started at 5:30 p.m. PT, which is not often. These were the third games between the two teams this season. The Mavericks have won the first two.

With LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and Luka Doncic all in dress, all of the stars were there. It was the Lakers who won in the end, rolling to a 127-110 win to get back to.500 at 21-21.

The big men got this game off to a good start. Dereck Lively II scored the first six points for Dallas, and Davis scored the first point for Los Angeles with a dunk.

When the score was tied at 10, the Mavericks scored seven straight points to take the lead. After that, Davis started to play better, making two baskets that kept his team in the game until James started to play better and gave them the lead again.

James and Davis were hot at the start, but Max Christie and Rui Hachimura started to make plays off the bench, too. By the end of the first quarter, L.A. was ahead 32–26.

Both teams made mistakes at the start of the second quarter and missed easy shots. Doncic did get going in the end, though, and Austin Reaves scored five straight points for L.A. to make things easier on offense.

As the half ended, the Mavericks came back strong and cut the gap to 55-53 before the break. This was made possible by Taurean Prince’s Flagrant 1 foul on Grant Williams.

James went on the attack to start the third quarter and made a three-point play. After that, D’Angelo Russell scored five straight points, and Davis made a layup to make the lead ten points for the first time.

From there, Russell made another three-point shot and Reaves hit Prince with an alley-oop in motion, giving the Lakers a bigger lead. By the time James hit his own 3, the lead had grown to 22.

After that, Dallas scored eight straight points to answer, but Davis kept doing his thing on both ends, and L.A. went into the fourth and final quarter ahead 97–80.

The Mavericks would have had to make a run early in the fourth quarter if they wanted to get back in the game. That didn’t happen, though, because Russell kept it up from deep and pushed the lead to 23 just two minutes into the fourth.

Last but not least, Dallas quit early, which let L.A. easily win.