Five takeaways from the Lakers’ 90-82 loss at Dallas

The Lakers lost to the Dallas Mavericks, 90-82, on Friday night. Here are five things to take away from the game:

1. Defensive rebounding had become what Lakers Coach Byron Scott called an “Achilles’ heel” for his team in recent games.

So he jumped on his big men and his guards, telling them they had to keep the Dallas Mavericks off the glass.

And it worked on Friday night.

Not only did the Lakers outrebound the Mavericks, 57-48, they gave up only seven offensive rebounds to Dallas.

Scott had seen a fundamental problem with his team when it came to defensive rebounds, a problem he said actually exists throughout the NBA.

“Guys just don’t box out anymore,” Scott said. “It’s just a fundamental thing that’s been lost. So we’ve got to get back to the fundamentals of just finding a guy, putting a body on him and then going and getting the ball.”

Julius Randle and Brandon Bass led the Lakers in rebounds, each getting 10. Roy Hibbert had nine.

When the Lakers practice Saturday in El Segundo at their training facility, Scott said “we will” do rebounding drills.

“As a matter of fact, we did before we left on this trip,” Scott said. “Obviously we haven’t had a whole lot of time to go back to it because of the games that we’ve had on this trip. But Saturday, we’re going to go right back to it.

“Our guards are going to be involved in it as well. Like I’ve always said, it’s something that you should have learned in high school. It’s a fundamentally sound part of the game.”

2. Bass actually did his best work on the offensive end of the backboards.

He had seven of his 10 rebounds on offense.

Bass also had seven points, his hustle and determination helping the Lakers stay in the game in the fourth quarter.

He also had three blocked shots.

3. The Lakers seem to always find a new way to lose a game.

Against the Mavericks, they turned the ball over 22 times.

Those are possessions a young team like the Lakers need.

“That really hurt us,” Scott said.

4. The Lakers did improve their defense on the five-game trip.

They held the Mavericks to 36.6% shooting from the field and gave up only 90 points.

5. The assumption had been that the Lakers would have all this firepower off the bench, considering they have Lou Williams, the NBA’s sixth man of the year winner last season in Toronto, and Nick Young.

But that wasn’t the case against the Mavericks.

The Lakers’ bench had just 19 points as a group.

Williams had 10 of those points, but he was just three-for-11 from the field.

Young didn’t score, missing all four of his shots.

Metta World Peace, back on the bench because Kobe Bryant had returned after missing the previous two games with a sore back, missed all nine of his shots and didn’t score.

Follow Broderick Turner on Twitter: @BA_Turner