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They were coming off of 2 championships and even had a better roster in '11 then the previous 2 seasons. They were really healthy all season - only Bynum and Barnes missed time while most of their top players played all 82 games.

G - Fisher/Blake
G - Bryant/Brown
F - Artest/Barnes
F - Gasol/Odom
C - Bynum

That's one of the best rotations we've seen in a long time with really no weaknesses yet they got swept by the Mavs. What gives?

The mass were incredibly hot against LA and Kidd did an amazing job on Kobe. If the lakers won that series, I think they would have won the title.

Rick carslie coached circles around the lakers as well

Dirk always matched up really well against Gasol and Bosh for some reason. They just had no answer. JET and Peja were huge as well.

It was just a case of an extremely bad matchup for the Lakers, because had it been any other team but the Mavs, it was shaping up to be a Lakers-Heat finals matchup.

There’s that famous photo somewhere out there where all the “experts” picked the Lakers, and most of them picked 5 or 6 games.

The Mavericks matched up ridiculously well against the Lakers, and LA just didn't have a response for it.

Dirk and Jason Terry were lights out and people forget how good Peja was in these playoffs up until he got injured.

On the defensive end they had long players who they could put on Bryant (who had a pretty bad series). Kidd especially had some key defensive stops against Bryant.

The Mavs also had really good depth.

Lakers could have put up more of a fight in game 4 though to not let Phil Jackson retire on his first ever sweep in a playoff series.

The Lakers were run down/fatigued after making it to 3 straight Finals. Almost every key rotational player of theirs was worn down by the playoffs and Kobe had a down year. Hard to be as motivated and ramp it up for the 4th consecutive season

Lockdown504090 wrote:The mass were incredibly hot against LA and Kidd did an amazing job on Kobe. If the lakers won that series, I think they would have won the title.

Rick carslie coached circles around the lakers as well

If the Lakers get by the Mavs they would have won their 3rd straight title. The Lakers were better than the Heat and Thunder. The only team that would have beat the 2011 Lakers in a 7 game series would have been the Spurs.



On March 30, 2011 (two weeks before the playoffs) the Lakers beat the Mavs by 28 on National TV. If you would have told me that 6 weeks later the Mavs would sweep that same Lakers team I would not have believed you.

I bring up that point because you will hear all sort of excuses on why the Lakers lost to the Mavs.....most of which are not to give the Mavs any credit at all.

https://www.espn.com/nba/game?gameId=310331013

Kobe Bryant scored 28 points, Andrew Bynum had 18 points and 13 rebounds, and the Lakers defeated the Mavericks 110-82 in a testy affair in which five players were ejected Thursday night.

In what was a possible preview of a second-round playoff matchup, this one had a postseason flair to it. Early in the fourth quarter, the Lakers' Matt Barnes and Steve Blake and the Mavericks' Jason Terry and Brendan Haywood were thrown out following a shoving match under the basket. Los Angeles' Shannon Brown was later ejected in a separate incident.

"This is a family here," Barnes said. "So if someone comes and hits your brother, pushes your brother, then you definitely have their back. And that's the case here."

The late skirmish didn't take away from the Lakers' eighth straight win and 16th in 17 games since the All-Star break, helping them pull within 2 1/2 games of slumping San Antonio for the NBA's top overall record. Los Angeles (54-20) also tied Chicago for the second-best mark in the league.

Maybe, just maybe... the Mavericks were that good?

People are gonna say the Mavs were a bad matchup, but if I remember correctly the Lakers looked like an unmotivated champion just waiting to flip the switch throughout the whole season. Remember that the Hornets (a one-man team of CP3 at that point) somehow managed to take 2 games from them in the first round. Then the Mavs swept them, though I think their series would've been more competitive had Kobe hit the game-winning three in Game 1.

Jonny Blaze wrote:

Lockdown504090 wrote:The mass were incredibly hot against LA and Kidd did an amazing job on Kobe. If the lakers won that series, I think they would have won the title.

Rick carslie coached circles around the lakers as well

If the Lakers get by the Mavs they would have won their 3rd straight title. The Lakers were better than the Heat and Thunder. The only team that would have beat the 2011 Lakers in a 7 game series would have been the Spurs.

On March 30, 2011 (two weeks before the playoffs) the Lakers beat the Mavs by 28 on National TV. If you would have told me that 6 weeks later the Mavs would sweep that same Lakers team I would not have believed you.

I bring up that point because you will hear all sort of excuses on why the Lakers lost to the Mavs.....most of which are not to give the Mavs any credit at all.

Maybe, but I wouldn’t go that far. Kobe and Pau had significantly underperformed in the playoffs comparative to previous seasons. Kobe averaged 22 points on very poor percentages and Pau averaged 13 points and 7 rebounds. Defensively they were not the same as well.

It was pretty clear to Lakers fans at that time that the whole squad just looked mentally and physically checked out. Phil Jackson and Pau got into it, Bynum was committing unnecessary fouls. The chemistry and cohesion was not there.

Props to the Mavs though... they caught on fire at the right time and made the most out of their talent

Jonny Blaze wrote:

Lockdown504090 wrote:The mass were incredibly hot against LA and Kidd did an amazing job on Kobe. If the lakers won that series, I think they would have won the title.

Rick carslie coached circles around the lakers as well

If the Lakers get by the Mavs they would have won their 3rd straight title. The Lakers were better than the Heat and Thunder. The only team that would have beat the 2011 Lakers in a 7 game series would have been the Spurs.



On March 30, 2011 (two weeks before the playoffs) the Lakers beat the Mavs by 28 on National TV. If you would have told me that 6 weeks later the Mavs would sweep that same Lakers team I would not have believed you.

I bring up that point because you will hear all sort of excuses on why the Lakers lost to the Mavs.....most of which are not to give the Mavs any credit at all.

https://www.espn.com/nba/game?gameId=310331013

Kobe Bryant scored 28 points, Andrew Bynum had 18 points and 13 rebounds, and the Lakers defeated the Mavericks 110-82 in a testy affair in which five players were ejected Thursday night.

In what was a possible preview of a second-round playoff matchup, this one had a postseason flair to it. Early in the fourth quarter, the Lakers' Matt Barnes and Steve Blake and the Mavericks' Jason Terry and Brendan Haywood were thrown out following a shoving match under the basket. Los Angeles' Shannon Brown was later ejected in a separate incident.

"This is a family here," Barnes said. "So if someone comes and hits your brother, pushes your brother, then you definitely have their back. And that's the case here."

The late skirmish didn't take away from the Lakers' eighth straight win and 16th in 17 games since the All-Star break, helping them pull within 2 1/2 games of slumping San Antonio for the NBA's top overall record. Los Angeles (54-20) also tied Chicago for the second-best mark in the league.

Actually,Kobe was hurt throughout that series and had barely any cartilage in his knee.He had no lift and that series promoted his trip to Germany for the prp treatment!! That was what helped him and spurred a dominant performance the following year.Also,that lakers team was out of fumes!! Gasol showed no heart in that series and was seriously outplayed by Dirk.Also, Phil Jackson was outclassed by Rick Carlisle as well!! Enough credit was given to the mavericks though! In highsight,highlight, were loaded as well from Caron butler,dirk, Jet,Jason kid, the matrix and the short point guard off the bench(forgot his name). They were the warriors before the warriors.The warriors obviously took it to another level with their shootings!

yep Caron Butler was definitely the difference in that series..... And you put some respect on JJ Barea's name.

Look in all seriousness, this wasn't a bad matchup for the Lakers. The Lakers had dominated the Mavs for years. This was a case of Dallas being a lot better than people realized(though in retrospect all the evidence was there all year how dominant they were when Dirk played) and the Lakers being physically and mentally worn down. Kobe's body wasn't right and Pau's mind wasn't right and remember Odom was never a good NBA player again and this was the end of the myth of Bynum being a good player.

The Lakers were just at the end of a great run and the Mavs were really freaking good. Maybe if the Lakers hold on in game 1, they put up a fight, but it was pretty clear the Mavs were just the better team and its hard to see a scenario where the Lakers win that series. And the whole thing looks worse because in the first half of game 4 Peja and Terry literally couldn't miss and then the Lakers just quit and its hard to blame them down 0-3 and 20 points. Kobe and Pau to their credit handled the situation with class. Shame Odom, World Peace, and Bynum couldn't.

Kobe was worn down, he had a nasty ankle injury in the previous round vs NO... then before the season started Kobe had his knee drained... and Kobe had a down year....there was some rumors of Shannon Brown messing around with Pau Gasol's wife.... regardless if it was true or not... those kind of rumors are locker room killers....on top of the other stuff going on... Phil retiring...fatigue... etc

Lockdown504090 wrote:The mass were incredibly hot against LA and Kidd did an amazing job on Kobe. If the lakers won that series, I think they would have won the title.

Rick carslie coached circles around the lakers as well

Zero chance they win the title. They wouldn't even gotten out of the West. That team was running on fumes and were sleep walking even after the sweep. The Mav's beat a team that was already mentally out of it. After 3 grueling finals, they were done.

And Peja already had terrible back problems. Look at his face on 0:48 and the arm move a few seconds earlier. That's why he barely played in the finals.

Optms wrote:

Lockdown504090 wrote:The mass were incredibly hot against LA and Kidd did an amazing job on Kobe. If the lakers won that series, I think they would have won the title.

Rick carslie coached circles around the lakers as well

Zero chance they win the title. They wouldn't even gotten out of the West. That team was running on fumes and were sleep walking even after the sweep. The Mav's beat a team that was already mentally out of it. After 3 grueling finals, they were done.

yea, im thinking in my world where kobe wasnt playing through 10000 injuries at that time. Imagine if they managed his body how lebron managed his how good kobe could have been in his early 30s... scary thought.

Peja got payback for 2002.

JJ Barea butt **** us

Deep playoff runs year after year break teams and most players down. It's brutal.

Not that it’s the only reason but Kobe wasn’t quite the same guy by the end of 2011. That was the year he had to stop practicing between games and was getting injections in his knees just so he could play. He flew out to Germany as soon as they lost to start receiving PRP injections.

Statistically he held it together for most of the year but it looked like he was starting to slip in the moment.