Dallas/LA: The Margin for Error

Awesome. One thing that you start to notice when analyzing these games closely is that Kobe’s 3 was oh so close to hitting. He makes that and we have a different view point. Today we are talking about what the Mavs could do better instead of what they did right. Its amazing how one shot, one inch, can change how we view the game. In reality the Mavs still need to play better and I think it comes down to Terry. We know Dirk will get his, as well as Kobe, Gasol, Bynum, Chandler. But Terry can shoot the Mavs right out of the game. He went 6-10, next game he could go to something putrid like 3-12. Unfortunatly I think that is more likely than what we saw last night. Hope I am wrong though

I thought the Mavericks won the game because they didn’t worry that much about their inability to guard Kobe and focused on cleaning up around him. Not to mention Phil Jackson’s inability to properly substitute down the stretch.
 
When Kobe scores 36 of the Lakers 94 points on 29 shots, that’s not necessarily a good thing for the Lakers.
 
By the way - 0 assists.
 
The lesson I took from last year’s Laker success in the playoffs the importance of playing through Gasol. When Kobe gets 25 points and 7 assists, the Lakers are the best team in basketball.

Dallas collected two technical fouls and was called for a 3 point shooting foul in the last 60 seconds of the first half that led to a 9 point spread.

How is that everything going right for Dallas?

Terry’s scoring is going to be so crucial for Dallas, but he’ll have trouble creating offense with Kobe on him in the fourth quarter. That’s why he needs to maximize his floor time when he has Fisher, Blake and Brown on him. That’s the point of the game the Mavericks need to dominate.

And yea if Kobe’s getting 25 with 7 assists, shooting a good percentage and playing lock-down perimeter D, I don’t think the Mavs can win. But I’m not sure he’s that guy anymore. And I’d much rather have him deciding the series than Gasol, Bynum and Odom on the interior.

The mavs played poorly and still won. What should have been a 5 point game going into halftime, was turned into a laughing stock situation. the laker lead went from 49-44, with 0.3 seconds left in the first half, to 60-44 in about 1:22 of basketball (including the start of the 3rd quarter - Dallas’ 3 possessions, 3 turnovers. ) but the mavericks hung in there, were patient, started rebounding, and played defense. That, and the lakers basically fell asleep and lost their confidence watching the Kobe Show.

The Celtics look old and done. Lebron and Wade are taking turns schooling them.
 
I think the Thunder have figured out how to handle Memphis. Slow the tempo down just a smidgen, let Conley score 30 if he wants, and get some contributions off of the bench so they don’t wear down. Nice games from Harden and Maynor to complement Durant/Westbrook. Really rolled up the Grizzly bigs in this one - Gasol/Randolph were a combined 5 of 22 from the field.

“That, and the lakers basically fell asleep and lost their confidence watching the Kobe Show.”

I was sitting right behind the Laker bench, and honestly from everything they said and did, it seemed like the opposite was the case. They were so confident they never really seemed to get they could lose the game. Even when they left the floor the tone and comments were more along the lines of, Well that was dumb now we have to do what we just did to the Hornets.

“Everything went right for Dallas in Game 1, and they won by two points.”

Are you kidding me with this schtick? Did you even watch the game? They totally collapsed at the end of the 1st half, Kobe was his usual Dallas-killing self, Jason Kidd turned the ball over at will, Stevenson couldn’t hit the broad side of the barn but kept shooting anyway, Marion was 5-11, and we shot half as many free throws as the Lakers.

But everything went right for Dallas.

Right.

I think “Getting your own shot” is such an overrated concept in basketball. How about setting a few picks, or passing the ball once in a while. I have no idea how a stat line like Kobe’s in game one merits five minutes of sports center time— yes he was 14 of 29 and scored 36 points. He also had ZERO assistants and three turnovers. Oh and his team lost, but the WWL spent the entire segment on how great Kobe was.

The best thing for Dallas is if Kobe decides he has to “take the game over” i.e. take 90% of the shots. Unfortunately, Kobe doesn’t really have to work defensively because really Dirk is the one guy on Dallas who is consistently tough to check, and Kobe probably won’t be guarding him.

Everything went right for the Mavs? Huh?

This Mavs team is different with Chandler. Not sure they will win the series, but keeping Tyson on the floor is key.

Watched the game at a sports bar in Santa Monica. Lakers fans didn’t believe their eyes. 16 point 3rd quarter lead and lose to the Mavericks??? Mavs looked like the better team. Can’t believe I just typed that. All this without their 2nd leading scorer (Butler).

Excellent post, wish I had noticed it was up before posting my own thoughts a minute ago.

By everything going right for Dallas, I’m looking at a couple things — three-point shooting (45% for Dallas, 26% for LA), the poor play of Gasol/Bynum and the excellent play of Terry/Barea. The Mavs 6’0 guards actually had as many points as the Lakers 7’0 post players — 23.

I don’t think the Mavericks can count on all three of those things continuing over a seven-game series, which is why it was so important for them to close out Game 1 when they had the chance to get a win in LA.

Nice article. I’m beginning to get my hopes up with the Lakers down 2 - 0. Barea as a fresh set of legs in the 4th was killer.

Nowitzki can’t be guarded.
 
LA is so scared of him they’re abandoning any pretense of help on dribblers.

The shot he hit on Pau Gasol towards the end of the fourth quarter was just absurd. I don’t think he had even turned his head to look at the basket until he was already fading away.

The big thing LA needs to do right now is punish Terry and Barea defensively. They can’t allow Dallas to get away with that line-up, and that’s where their lack of depth just kills them — Brown and Blake in particular have been giving them nothing.

Pretty stunned by last night. It looks like the margin of error can get as big as LA lets it get. Which is a lot of larger than I ever thought they’d allow. Wow. I missed the second half but caught some highlights, does Artest get a 1 game suspension?

There are many reasons the Mavs are outplaying the Lakers, and having everything "go their way" isn’t one of them. Dirk is playing at a higher level now than we was his MVP season, and Chandler gives them their first center that can contribute on both ends of the floor since James Donaldson. How about 38 year old Jason Kidd? He is doing what he does… which is making everyone on the floor better. He sees and does all the little things that most NBA players can’t do or don’t care to do, and he is playing smart physical defense against Kobe.

Dallas is the deepest team in the NBA, and the energy level difference between these two teams is obvious. Carlisle did a much better job this season limiting minutes.

Artest deserves a two game suspension. It wasn’t the only cheap shot he took during the game.

This is the NBA, the Lakers are in the playoffs fighting for their lives, I will be shocked if Artest even gets a game suspension.

Some one from the league office is probably on the phone right now with the head of officials.

I expect Artest to get a one game suspension.

He will serve it at the beginning of next season.

Maybe I’ve been watching too much Law & Order on TNT, but the pre-meditation of what Artest did really bothers me. It’s one thing to get caught up with a guy in the heat of a moment and clothesline him, especially for a known hot-head. It’s quite another to stroll across the court, deck a dude half your size after the play is over and then calmly walk away, knowing what you did is going to get you ejected.