With the Los Angeles Lakers on the brink of their season ending, it would seem almost fitting that they would pull off at least 1 victory to make the series a little more interesting.
They did not. And in fact, the way they lost may have made it more interesting than them actually winning. Seems odd, but let's look at what happened.
The final score in itself, was absolutely astonishing. The Mavericks pummeled the Lakers by the score of 122-86. A 36 point win over the 2-time defending Los Angeles Lakers.
The Dallas Mavericks hit an amazing 11 3-pt shots in the first half alone, tying the playoff record. The Laker defense was non-existant, leaving Jason Terry and Peja Stojakovic wide open to shoot, as if it were a 3-pt competition. They were hitting, and hitting often.
The Mavericks tied another playoff record by hitting 20 total 3-pt shots. With Jason Terry hitting 9 of those threes, tying yet another record by one player in the post-season. After the game, Kobe Bryant had this to say about the hot shooting of Dallas. "They jumped out on us in the second quarter. It was just 3 after 3 after 3 and we could never get back in it."
The Dallas Mavericks bench scored a combined 86 pts. Matching what the Lakers entire team put up. Just look at that. That's amazing. Getting some production has been one of the Mavericks strong points this year, but single handedly matching the Lakers points, is insane. Getting that much production makes them even more dangerous, when you don't even mention having to deal with Dirk Nowitzki, you know your playing at an extremely high level.
Had somebody told me before the game that would be the score, I would have guessed the Lakers would have been on the winning side. With their backs against the wall, I could see them pulling an upset in Dallas.
The only problem with the Lakers even having the chance to win is they had to show up. They didn't. Flat out they looked non-interested in taking any part of that game. The look of defeat was already set in their minds before they even took the court.
Give the Mavericks credit though. They simply wanted it more. Dirk Nowitzki and company are hungry, and they are out for blood.
It'd be interesting to see how the MVP voting would go now. If the votes didn't count until after the playoffs, who's to say that it would still be Derrick Rose? With Nowitzki's post-season play, I bet he would garner a few more votes than he got for his regular season play.
He's got my vote right now.
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