DALLAS -- Another rough third quarter. Another punchless effort from the frontcourt. Another loss in Texas.
When all else failed, the Lakers turned into the Kobe Bryant show, but it wasn't enough to prevent a 112-105 loss Friday to the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center.
Bryant had 40 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, but there were more questions than answers after the Lakers fell to 2-3 without Andrew Bynum.
Luke Walton and Lamar Odom each had four points, marking another eerily quiet game for their starting forwards. When will they turn it around?
The Lakers botched another strong first half with a suspect third quarter in which they were outscored, 35-19. Will they ever outscore a team in the third quarter the rest of the way?
They came up with two losses through an admittedly tough two-game trek though Texas, but how difficult does that upcoming nine-game expedition look now?
A lot of issues, not a lot of solutions, starting with the situation in the frontcourt.
Kwame Brown had 10 points and five rebounds, numbers that almost beat the combined stats of Walton (four points, four rebounds) and Odom (four points, two rebounds). For once, it wasn't what Brown could do for you. It was about what plagued the Lakers' forwards.
"I don't know," Coach Phil Jackson said. "This game was not effective [for them]. It didn't clear it up for them at all."
Walton took one shot in 23 minutes. Odom made two of nine in 32 minutes and took almost eight fewer rebounds than his average.
In the Lakers' 103-91 loss Wednesday against San Antonio, Odom had 11 points and Walton had five.
"Right now, we're probably just off-rhythm, both of us," Odom said. "It's a rhythm offense, so there's going to be nights like that."
Is it correctable?
"You get in the gym, you just keep shooting the ball," he said. "In a game, you just keep shooting the ball. You just keep shooting it. I'll just play basketball the right way until the coach tells me otherwise."
Almost as concerning as the lack of production at forward is the Lakers' apparent lack of interest in the third quarter.
They played the Mavericks to a relative draw in the first half and trailed, 56-55, but couldn't sustain it in the third quarter, giving the home team a 91-74 cushion.
It was a near replay of the Lakers' loss in San Antonio, a stellar first half fumbled away after a third quarter in which they were drilled, 31-12.
