Alright readers, raise your hand if you thought the Dallas Mavericks would beat the Los Angeles Lakers. If I could actually see my readers, I don’t think I’d see very many hands up… maybe two or three way down in Texas, along with one in Alabama (giving props to Sir Charles, he got one right!). Ok, now raise your hand if you thought the Mavs would sweep. I don’t think even the most fanatical and delusional of Maverick homers would’ve called that. Alright, now speak up if you would’ve put a single cent on a 36-point game-four Dallas victory? I’m hearing the distinct sound of crickets chirping. Now that I think about it… this has to be one of the most shocking occurrances that I’ve witnessed in all my years of following NBA basketball. The Lakers finished the season on a bit of a slide, but they weren’t playing for a whole lot, and they’ve always gone through ups and downs during the dog days of the regular season. The roster was essentially the same, probably even a little better than the one that had won the past two NBA championships. Phil Jackson was going for his fourth three-peat, and Kobe Bryant was making a run at his sixth ring, which would “make him equal” to Michael Jordan. I will now interrupt myself to go off on a little bit of a tangent: I put “make him equal” in quotations because I don’t care how many goddamn rings he wins, he’s no MJ. You can get pissy with me all you want, but as far as I’m concerned, Kobe has two rings. When you’re comparing a guy’s rings to MJ’s, it’s absurd to count the ones won as a second option. Kobe played a major role in winning his first three, obviously… I’m not going to sit here and try to tell you he was Adam Morisson or some crazy hateful sh!t; he was the second option, and winning a ring as a second option is a hell of an achievement… but we’re talking about Michael Jeffrey Jordan, the motherf@cker that won six rings and all six finals MVPs to go along with them. So, please people, stop trying to compare Kobe’s five to Jordan’s six. Kobe has two as the man. Two. T-W-O. There’s nothing wrong with that… that’s more than, sh!t, probably 99% of all NBA players ever to set foot on a court have… but it isn’t six. End of tangent.
Alright, where was I? Oh yeah, so Kobe was on a mission to try to get that sixth ring to “match” Michael Jordan, so you know he wanted it. Not only that, the Mavericks are notorious choke artists, and Bryant has a reputation for lighting them up as if they’re nothing but Mark Cuban’s Christmas tree. So, even considering the Lakers poor play down the stretch and their struggles with a banged up Hornets team, I don’t think anyone in their right mind would’ve predicted an easy series for Dallas… let alone a sweep topped off with a 36-point win. You would’ve had to be f@ckin’ nuts; it seemed to defy all logic. I called Lakers in six citing size, home court, best player, and composure advantages… but they weren’t able to capitalize on a single one of those apparent edges. In fact, Chandler/Haywood/Marion pretty effectively contained Bynum/Gasol/Odom, they obviously stole home court right off the bat, Dirk was easily the best player in the series, and the Mavs showed a whole lot more mental toughness. Don’t forget that they endured what appeared to be a devestating Laker run in the second and third quarters in game one, and had to come back after trailing throughout the second half of game three. LA gave them game four, but they took games one, two, and three.
About that game four… a game it never really was. LA never led after 11-10 with six minutes to go in the first, and even though I felt like they played one of their best quarters of the series, they still trailed by four. Maybe they felt the same thing, and the feeling must have been demoralizing, because it was all Dallas from that point until the final buzzer. Jason Terry and Peja Stojakovic came off the bench and started naling triples like it was going out of style. The Mavs have been shooting the long ball well all series long, but it’s been nothing like this… they knocked down 20 of 32–that’s 62.5 percent! That’s damn near what the Lakers shot from the f@cking freethrow line. Jason Terry and Peja Stojakovic were responsible for 15 of those makes, and only 16 of the attempts. Peja went six for six, and Terry tied Ray Allen’s playoff record with 9 connections on 10 tries. The Mavs’ bench had already scored 40 points by halftime. The entire Laker squad had 39. Dallas finished out the game just as hot as they’d started it… they showed a lot of determination as they never took their foot off the gas. Credit the bench… Terry, Peja, and Bera combined for 75 points (Dallas got a total of 86 from their reserves). Andrew Bynum didn’t care too much for any of that, so he decided to take his frustration out on one of the league’s smallest players…
I have officially lost all respect for Andrew Bynum. Not only is he a fragile, inconsistent, underachieving ‘tard, he does this sh!t all the time. Ask Michael Beasley, or Gerald Wallace. Look, I’ve got no problem with a hard foul, but there’s a way to do it without hurting people. Wrap the guy up, slap him on the arm, something like that… none of these flying forearm shivers–it’s straight up dirty. Look at the Berea video, then watch the ones with Beasley and Wallace. Each play is identical… Bynum does this on a regular basis. Wallace was sent to the hospital with a punctured lung, and the other two were very fortunate not to be badly injured; they both hit the deck really hard. I think some would consider Bynum some sort of “enforcer”, but at this point it’s become clear to me that his judgement is simply effected by his frustration. He’s basically admitted to that: “They were breaking us down, so I just fouled somebody.”
Lamar Odom also decided to check out of this game a little early, but I’m not really mad at him. He was getting embarrassed and felt the need to take a little shot at Dirk. Lame, but not really dangerous….
One of the main reasons that Dallas was able to win this series was the three-ball. The Mavs tied an NBA record for a playoff game with 20 makes yesterday afternoon… that’s five more than the Lakers made all series long. Those 20 threes bumped them up to 49 makes in the series, and NBA record for a four-game sweep. The best part? Brian Cardinal hit number 20/49. I would’ve preferred DeShawn Stevenson (NBA247365.COM Legend), but Cardinal is cool too. The historical triple accounted for his only three points of the series. As a matter of fact, it’s the only shot he’s taken thus far in the playoffs. This will make an excellent triva question some day.
I’ve got to give credit to Jason Terry, who scored 32 points last night. I gave him a lot of sh!t prior to the series for that comment he made that went something like “we aren’t worried about the Los Angeles Lakers.” While it remains a stupid comment seeing as he said it midway through the regular season and the Lakers ended up passing them in the standings, I give him major props for stepping up and taking care of business. He had just one subpar game all series long, and his average of 19.75 PPG on 50-somethin’ percent are forcing me to eat serious crow.
Before I move on to the other game, I’ve got to take it there… so, how does this embarrassing defeat effect Kobe’s legacy? I’m not really into that type of bullsh!t, but I’m a little curious as to how this will impact his image in the average ESPN analyst’s brain. It’s common to hear some guy in a suit say something like “Kobe Bryant is in the conversation with MJ if he gets his sixth ring.” Well, not only did he not get it, he was swept by a team with a history of postseason flame-outs, and he didn’t even play very well individually. So, will we still have to put up with the Kobe/MJ foolishness? Probably, but hopefully this helps hammer the point (that KB is not MJ) home to some of these ‘tards. Please don’t take this as some sort of knock on Kobe Bryant–that would be foolish of you. All I’m saying is that he isn’t as good as the greatest player ever to touch a ball. That doesn’t mean he isn’t great, even one of the greatest ever… he just shouldn’t be in the discussion with the greatest ever. I feel like that was already clear as day, but for a lot of folks it definitely wasn’t. For those of you who couldn’t see it already, take a long, hard look at this series, and these playoffs as a whole, and rethink your stance.
I’m not sure what’s more of a surprise to me: Dallas sweeping LA, or Atlanta being tied 2-2 with Chicago through four games. I wouldn’t have bet on either, that’s for damn sure. Anyway, the Hawks beat the Bulls because their shots went in. Really, it’s that f@cking simple with the Hawks: they have skilled offensive players who do a lot of one-on-one type sh!t, they create decent looks for themselves, and if they put ‘em in at about 50 percent then they’ll probably win the game (assuming the other team didn’t shoot better). They made 40 of 81 last night, and since the Bulls went just 32-78, that was good enough for a 100-88 victory. Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford shot well for the first time since game one (combined for 36 points on 14-25), and Josh Smith put the icing on the cake with his first made jumper of the series. Smith had a pretty good game with 23 points, 16 boards, and eight assists… had he stayed away from the perimeter it would’ve been a beautiful f@cking game… but he didn’t, so he went 8-22. Fortunately for the Hawks, he refrained from launching any jumpers as ATL broke an 84-84 tie and finished the game on a 16-4 run that covered the final four minutes. During this run, Jeff Teague out-played Derrick Rose. Yes, you read that correctly. Teague made the layup that broke the tie, then scored another layup to make it a 10-point game with just over a minute to go. He also stole the ball from Rose, who went 0-2 during that 16-4 Hawks run (also turned the ball over twice). Derrick had 34 points (and 10 dimes), but he needed 32 shots to get there, and more importantly, he had a rare crunch-time dud.
Jeff Teague continues to come up HUGE for the Hawks in this series. When Kirk Hinrich got injured in the close-out game against Orlando, I thought it would be a devestating blow to the Hawks backcourt. It turns out that it may have been a blessing in disguise. I’m not saying Hinrich can’t contribute in this series, because he absolutely can, and the Hawks could use him… I’m just saying that if he doesn’t get hurt, Jeff Teague doesn’t get this opportunity to step up, and without Jeff Teague, the Hawks don’t have this thing tied 2-2. Said Hinrich on Teague: “He’s playing great. Obviously he has ability. He’s fast. He’s good at finishing up around the rim.”
That’s right. He’s fast, and he’s good at getting to the rim… he did just that for two key ATL buckets last night. Kirk Hinrich does not have the ability to make those plays. He’s an impact player with his defense and his outside shooting, but Teague’s ability to penetrate and finish, much like Rose does, has caused trouble for Chicago.
As for Josh Smith finally making a jumper… it seemed like every miss and every groan from the fans just made him want to shoot the next one even more. After all, he is still apparently convinced that the midrange J is part of his game: “There are people who don’t understand the game, who don’t know the game. That doesn’t faze me.”
Uh oh, it doesn’t faze him. Expect him to continue gunning. I hope he saw Charles Barkley wearing a helmet on TNT last night as he discussed how he would prepare to rebound a Josh Smith jumper.
