Lakers hope to turn things around in Dallas

May 6, 2011

Prior to the start of the playoffs, the expert NBA handicappers in Vegas made the Los Angeles Lakers the odds-on favorites to win the NBA Championship for the 3rd consecutive season. Vegas books don’t post their odds based on what they believe will happen, but on what the public’s perception is. After game two’s incredible result, both the public and basketball experts are looking foolish,

Kobe Bryant and the 2-time defending Champions are playing like an 8th seed that is just happy to be in the second round. The Dallas Mavericks have played superior ball on both sides of the court, and have put the Los Angeles Lakers backs against the wall with a 2-0 lead that has them heading back home for games 3 and 4. Dirk Nowitzki has played tremendous ball thus far, but it hasn’t been his play alone that has Los Angeles in this hole.

Andrew Bynum said that the team in not on the same page. What he meant by that is that they aren’t helping each other like they should be on the defensive end. However, scoring 81 point at home in game 2 shows that the Lakers aren’t doing enough offensively to get the job done. All season long the Lakers have taken advantage of their size and length inside to bury teams. For some reason they have gotten away from that philosophy, and are settling for jump shots. Game 2 was a perfect example of the Lakers game plan as they took 20 3-pointers and made just 2 of them. More importantly, Kobe Bryant has shown the ability to close-out games like he did when he was in his prime. This was considered the main factor in this series before either team even took the court.

It’s obvious that both teams have a player that is un-guardable by the other, but only Nowitzki has taken advantage of that advantage. Nowitzki is averaging 26 points and 10 rebounds per game in this series, but that should be enough to have the Lakers down 0-2. It has been the inconsistency and lack of production from the Lakers bench that has put this series in the Mavericks hands. Matt Barnes, Shannon Brown and Steve Blake were a combined 3-11 shooting and contributed just 3 rebounds in a total of 43 minutes. All 3 of these players were expected to contribute far more than they have to Los Angeles, and have been the reason for much of their struggles this series.

Game 2 is an absolute must for Los Angeles. If they fall behind 0-3 with 2 games remaining in Dallas, it will be nearly impossible to come back from. In my opinion they need to focus more on their offensive flow than their breakdowns on defense. Dallas has somehow managed to shut down the Lakers “Bigs” and will need to continue that trend if they have hopes of closing out this series and moving on to the Western Conference Finals. Pau Gasol has been the most disappointing part of the team over the last 2 games. He has scored just 28 points combined in 2 games, and is shooting far below his season average of .529. It will be up to him and Andrew Bynum to turn things around for Los Angeles as they go to Dallas in hopes of a road sweep of their own.

Tune in Friday night as the Lakers hope to flip the switch that all of Los Angeles has been talking about since the start of the playoffs. Mark Cuban is hoping that this is the year that his talented squad finally breaks through and get to the NBA Finals. Regardless of who wins, this should be an exciting match-up that comes down to the wire.

Written by Glenn Andrew · Filed Under NBA

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