Basketball Is a Game of "Runs"

05/03/11

The reigning champions Los Angeles Lakers took on the Dallas Mavericks at the Staples Center for Game 1 of the series last night, with the outcome not favoring the Lakers.

What seemed like an easy victory for the Lakers, when up by 16 in the third quarter turned into an awful display of defense and bad shot choice-that incurred a loss. I know that stats don't typically mean everything when it comes to sports, but let's look at the glaring one that put's the Lakers in a tough spot. The team that wins game 1 on the road of a seven-game series goes on to win the series 78% of the time. How's that for putting the Lakers in a tough spot? If anyone can come back from a defecit in a series, it would be the Lakers. But, the point is that they are now in that tough position, instead of doing what they were supposed to do, taking care of their home-court advantage.

The Lakers bench was also a main area of concern, after yet another poor performance from everyone excluding sixth man of the year Lamar Odom. The Lakers were outscored by Dallas' bench 40-25, with 15 of those 25 points off the bench coming from Odom. If they Lakers want to advance past Dallas, they need some big play from the "Killer B's"-Blake, Brown, and Barnes.

With about 3 seconds left in the game the Lakers were down by 2, and had one last opportunity to tie or win the game. With one of the best closers in Kobe Bryant on the floor, everyone knew where it was going. Even so, Kobe curled at the top of the three point line with Bynum setting a perfect screen. Kobe rolled over the top of him, catching the ball and squaring up to the hoop all in one fluid motion. Kobe got what was a great look off, it went long. You could see and hear the letdown at the arena. It was almost another ending we had become so accustomed to seeing with the Lakers, and Kobe Bryant, another game winning shot. This time, the tides turned when Dirk Nowitzki was the clutch performer of the night, scoring 11 fourth quarter points and leading his team to a game 1 road victory.

Let's go over what I think is the pivotal point to this game, and most NBA games in general. The NBA is a game of "runs" and "spurts". When the Lakers had a 18-2 run, it almost seemed certain they would be able to hang onto the big lead in the third quarter, and hold onto the lead in the fourth. But what did the Mavericks do? They took the punch the Lakers dished out, and gave a big blow back when they replied with a big 20-6 run in the third quarter themselves. The Mavericks got hot, and the Lakers got satisfied with taking long jump-shots, instead of pounding the ball into their biggest advantage of all, their length. This quote after the game from Pau Gasol says it all. "We maybe got a little carried away. We didn't make good decisions offensively and we paid the price defensively. We gave them a chance that way. We got a little too excited at that particular time."  The Lakers didn't mainain their level of play and intensity that got them that big 16 point lead. It cost them the game.

Interesting stat of the day: The Lakers only scored 2 total points the last 3:32 of play.

Stats of the game:

Lakers: K. Bryant-36 points, 5 rebounds. L. Odom-15 points, 12 rebounds. P. Gasol-15 point, 11 rebounds.

Mavericks: D. Nowitzki-28 points, and 14 rebounds. J. Terry-15 points. J. Kidd-7 points, 11 assists, and 5 rebounds.