The Los Angeles Lakers played their first game of the main Las Vegas summer league on Thursday, and they went up against Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks. It was an opportunity for their young players to showcase some of their potential in front of a larger crowd than they had played in front of at the California Classic.

This game was close throughout. The Lakers took a modest lead late in the second quarter and went up by as many as 10 points in the third quarter. But Dallas came roaring back and took a 68-62 lead at the end of the period.

Los Angeles fought back and went up 85-82 with 2:22 left in the fourth quarter. But it didn’t score again, while Ryan Nembhard, the younger brother of the Indiana Pacers‘ Andrew Nembhard, hit a 19-footer and a 3-pointer to hand L.A. an 87-85 loss.

Flagg struggled with his shooting, going just 5-of-21 from the field, while Nembhard led the Mavs with 21 points. For the Lakers, Cole Swider went 6-of-9 from 3-point range to score 22 points, while Dalton Knecht was 6-of-16 from the field and 3-of-7 from downtown, giving him 15 points. Unfortunately, Knecht had to leave the game late with what was diagnosed as a right calf cramp.

Bronny James scored eight points and made two of his eight field-goal attempts. Forward Darius Bazley, who was impressive in his last two games, had eight points and 11 rebounds while doing a solid job defensively against Flagg.

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Summer Lakers fall short to Cooper Flagg, Mavericks in Las Vegas