As I predicted, the Lakers ran away from the Mavs in a 110-82 victory, their 8th in a row and 16th since the All-Star break (to just one loss). Jason Terry, who’s been doing his share of talking throughout the season, lost his cool as the game began to slip away early in the fourth quarter…
Let me just say that I thoroughly enjoyed this little scrum. First of all, it had me seeing flashbacks to the first round of the ’07 playoffs. Matt Barnes really escalated this thing when he shoved JET (and then assistant coach Terry Stotts, former Bucks failure, LOL), and you know there’s still some animosity there from one of the greatest upsets in the history of the league. I just had to laugh (like I said I would when the Lakers kicked their asses) at Terry because he’s struck me as a bit of an over-confident d-bag lately what with all the “we’re not worried about the Lakers” talk. You worried about ‘em now, Jason? I think you should be, seeing as they’re better than you. My main man Matt Barnes summed this all up pretty objectively:
“I definitely lost my cool,” Barnes said. “But I think (Jason Terry) may have lost his cool a little bit for the fact we were really putting it on their team.”
Pretty much. Joey Crawford was officiating, so anyone and everyone within a 10 mile radius of the altercation was thrown out. Five players and three fans was the final ejection count. One of those fans was some nutcake who tried to storm the court near the Dallas bench…
That was a top-notch stop by that usher. That dude should look into a new career as an NFL linebacker if the league’s lockout ever ends.
So what did we learn last night? Or, should I say, what that we already knew was reinforced? Dallas just isn’t a mentally tough bunch. Earlier on in the season I was feeling like they may have turned a mental corner, but I’ve lost confidence in these guys. They’re still the same bunch of softies that put up great regular season records and crumble under pressure year after year. They had a chance to make a statement last night, but of course they dropped the ball. They were in it at the half (down just three), but they lost the third quarter 28-19. Dirk put in a pretty good effort with 8 of his 27 in the period, but the rest of his team was completely absent from that point on. Jason Terry, the big talker, went 2-9 from the field for five points and three turnovers. The four starters not from Germany combined for just 27 points. As a team, they shot 36 percent and missed 20 of 26 three-pointers. It was just a poor showing… there’s really not much else to say. I’m not trying to act like good teams aren’t allowed to have bad games, but the Mavs haven’t beaten a Western Conference playoff team since January f@ckin’ 19th. That’s two losses to the Lakers, and one to the Spurs, Hornets, Blazers, Grizzlies, and Nuggets. There’s a victory over Boston mixed in there, but other than that they haven’t beaten anybody for months. How the hell am I supposed to buy into this team when they lose every game to the teams they’ll have to beat in order to win an NBA title? We all know it’s title or bust for this team. Their window is closing with a lot of the key components getting older. Assuming these guys finish in third place (2.5 games ahead of OKC at the moment), they will likely draw New Orleans, Portland, or Memphis. I could see them losing to the Blazers or the Grizzlies… a couple of teams that are as tough as nails. No one wants to see either of those squads in the first round, especially the Mavs, who have this pressure-imposing monkey on their backs due to past post-season flops.
As for the Lakers… they just keep on rolling. Andrew Bynum continues to show up every night; he had another great game with 18/13. Kobe dropped 28, including five straight to end a mini run by Dallas, Pau Gasol did his efficient 20/7, and Lamar Odom had another double-double off the bench…. and Ron Artest made it through a fight without being ejected. He was on the bench at the time, but still… that’s an accomplishment for him.
The guy has to have the ugliest game in the history of the league. He plays like the stereotypical football player from the local rec league, for whom basketball is a second sport.
The Celtics beat the Spurs in the early game, meaing that the Lakers are within 2.5 games of the Spurs and the Cs are within two games of the Bulls. I missed the first half of this game, but from what I saw I can tell you that Rajon Rondo was agressive, Boston’s offense looked pretty fluid again, and they simply knocked shots down while the Spurs did not. The Cs put 107 points on the board (22 from Rondo) while the Spurs sputtered to 97. They had all of their main cogs back from injury, but they missed 21 of 29 threes, which obviously cost them. Tony Parker battled Rondo valliantly with 23 points of his own, but Ginobili, Hill, Neal, and the other perimeter guys struggles mightilly. The Cs got solid bench efforts out of Big Baby (16 points) and Jermaine O’Neal–that’s right–Jermaine O’neal. It was JO’s first game since the middle of January, and he was forced to go 11 minutes down the stretch because Nenad Krstic went down with a knee injury. He’ll have an MRI this weekend to determine the severity of the injury. Boston better hope Shaq really is close to returning, because I doubt that JO will be able to hold down the fort for very long before he wears down.
San Antonio has now lost five in a row, and Coach Popazitz knows the timing isn’t good:
“It happens to everybody. And this is about the worst time it could happen, at the end of the year. If it has to happen, you want it to happen 30 games in so you can get back and recover. So we got to step on it.”
It would certainly be a bit of a letdown if the Lakers end up passing them in the standings. They were so far ahead all season long, and a losing streak at the worst possible time would be a crappy way to drop a spot and stumble into the playoffs.
