The Los Angeles Lakers play host to the Dallas Mavericks at Crypto.com Arena on Friday.

The Mavericks (35-35) pulled off a much-needed win on Wednesday, grabbing an overtime victory against the San Antonio Spurs. While that's one of the worst teams in the NBA, Dallas isn't much better with Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic both sidelined. There were 14 ties and 24 lead changes in that bloody overtime game, but the Mavericks went on a 13-0 run in the extra session to take command. Christian Wood led the club with 28 points and 13 rebounds, which is his best game in months. If they can get the two superstars back and more consistency from Wood, this team should stay above .500 for the remainder of the season.

The Lakers (34-36) suffered an ugly loss on Wednesday, getting beat by the Houston Rockets. That's the second-worst team in the NBA, but it's tough for this LA team to compete without Anthony Davis and LeBron James. The good news is that AD was only rested for that game, so he should be ready to return here. LeBron is going to be out a couple more weeks, though, and it remains to be seen if this team can stay in the playoffs with him sidelined. The Lakers rank 10th in the west right now but are just 0.5 games up on the Utah Jazz and Portland Trail Blazers behind them, If this team can sneak into the playoffs with a healthy Davis and LeBron, this is a club no one will want to play after the reinforcements from the trade deadline to support those two.

This is the fourth and final meeting between these teams, with Dallas winning two of three. They've won six of their last eight games over Los Angeles in total.