Official [2]Lakers vs [3]Mavericks 2nd Round Discussion #3

[Alex Trevelyan]

LOL get real. A sweep? Miami is not unbeatable, Dallas has way more depth and the superior bench. Not to mention they can exploit Miami's weaknesses, namely PG and front court defense. Miami has Bosh and...? Dallas has the superior defense and the much better defensive front court. Miami is relying on their perimeter D and they're getting away with it against a Boston team that is not as good as most people thought. Remember Boston finished the season horribly after the Perkins trade which a lot of people seem to conveniently forget. What Dallas is doing right now is much more impressive as LA was thought of by many to make it out of the West no question. It'll be a good series but no way in hell either team sweep.

You make so many errors in a single paragraph not one line doesn't include something inane and just wrong. Depth means nothing in the playoffs. The benches are shortened, the starters log 40+ minutes every game. The Sixers, Nuggets and Spurs ranked 4th, 5th and 6th in points from the bench during the season, they were all knocked out in the first-round. Last year the world champion Lakers were 28th in bench production. The Celtics 25th. The year before that the Lakers were 16th and the Magic 28th! The year before that the world champion Celtics were 18th in bench production, the team they beat, the LAL were 11th! There is no correlation between bench strength and playoff success. None. If you think the Mavericks bench strength will play any role in a series against the Heat you are sadly mistaken.

There is not a single metric that matters in which the Mavericks are a superior team to the Miami Heat. Points differential, rebounding differential, defensive and offensive rating, defensive and offensive efficiency. The Mavericks are no where near the defensive team the Heat are. Where did you get that from? Miami's front court has a defensive efficiency rating of 9.8, the Mavericks aren't even close at 6.2. Maybe you've heard of Joel Anthony, he's the Heat center that is so quick he can cover point guards. Ask Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Zach Randolph about the Heat's interior defense.

What the Mavericks are doing is impressive--for the Mavericks. The Lakers lost 2-games to the Hornets for crying out loud. How big of an accomplishment is the Mavs going up 3-0 against the Lakers? They were worse than Boston was to close out the season. They lost 5 of their last 7 games. Then could barely beat a Hornets team that didn't even have David West in the lineup. The Mavs are a nice story, but against the Heat it would be a total mismatch.

[Wilford Brimley]

Not to get too far ahead, but who do you all feel the Mavs match up better agains, OKC or MEM?

[OGSactownballer]

The Lakeers are getting exploited at the two positions that they ALWAYS have trouble defending - the PF and PG.

In addition, the Mavs have the size and bodies to counter their bigs and Kobe.

It's really that simple. And quite honestly, I would not be at ALL surprised to see them ride their cohesiveness all the way to the championship.

[Galis4]

You never know, the Mavs may still choke the rest of the games and go down as the first team to ever lose when up 3-0. Then the forums would collapse.

I think it sad when a person has to rely on another team choking rather than their own team actually coming through. The Lakers did this to themselves and only have themselves to blame. They didn't take things seriously all year, and relied on their "we are the Los Angeles Lakers. You will bow down to us." Arrogance. Problem was, when other teams finally STOPPED bowing down to them, they act like they don't know what to do anymore. They aren't intimidating anybody anymore and now they're struggling because they lost their mental advantage over everybody else. Teams were basically psyched out before they even stepped on the court. Looking at the body language of most teams in the past, a lot of them clearly did NOT believe they could win, and that's why everything came so easy for the Lakers.

But this time, a team like the Hornets, undersized and undermanned, took them to 6 games! Why? Because they BELIEVED they could win. And whenever a team believes they can win, when they AREN'T afraid, when they AREN'T intimidated, when they AREN'T awe-struck by Kobe Bryant, guess what happens? They give the Lakers hell! They may not necessarily win the series, but they make the Lakers look very mortal. We saw it with Boston, Phoenix, and OKC. Hell, even Houston pushed them to 7 games a couple years ago.

And now we have Dallas finally putting their foot down and saying, we don't care about Kobe cause we have Dirk, and you can't stop him either. They're saying, we don't care about Gasol and Bynum because we have Chandler and Haywood to body them up. (And I've always thought Gasol was soft, btw. Somebody tell this guy to stop screaming, flailing his arms around, and falling on the floor all the time. His little brother is MUCH tougher than him.) And they're say, our bench is better than yours. (Terry, Berea, Peja) they know they are the better team and they're taking care of business. 3-0 is no fluke, and there will be no choke job. At least, not in this series. The reign is over.

Utter garbage....

Why?
Most of his points make sense.

[big_ticket]

kobe thinks they can still win the series?face the facts kobe...

[big_ticket]

gasol is a whore..girl problems are SHEET,mentally pau needs to get a specialist,

[Brooklyn_34]

If the Mavericks want to win this, Dirk needs at the very least 25 shots and go to him every single possesion in the fourth quarter.

No more Terry/Kidd/Barea bullcrap, Dirk needs to drop 40.

Agreed. Dirk needs to "throw down the hammer" so to speak.

I would love to see a 40 point game from him.

[schematics]

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/21 ... _Up_Lakers

^ Shots fired! "too old and NO athletes"...really Magic...tell us how you really feel bro.

[DEEP3CL]

Not to get too far ahead, but who do you all feel the Mavs match up better agains, OKC or MEM?

If that's not getting too far ahead ? Then ask about a match up when your team is still involved in a close out game.........

[dyukcs]

People get so worked up about jinxes it's funny. The only thing that happens if you assume you'll win and don't is getting embarrassed. But if we blow this lead I'll be embarrassed regardless.

[cs hauser]

I think Game #4 in this series will be over midway through the 3rd quarter. Either the Mavericks are blown out and embarrassed at their home court, or the Lakers roll over and implode. Whichever the case, this will definitely not be a close game like the first 3 in the series. And we will see Kobe scowl a lot... either at the Mavs, or at his own teammates. But he will scowl. A lot.

[Iversean]

Lakers in 7

[Mavs2theFinals]

Lakers in 7

Dont you mean "LAKERS IN 7"

[asdfgh]

Does anyone else think the Mavs should start Brewer at the 2 instead of Stevenson?

[myconsumerclub]

MIA has Bron and Wade. They play SG and SF neither of which is the most important nor even the 2nd most imprtant position. Those positions would be PG and C for those of you with no BB IQ. The Mavs are way better at those positions and Dirk at PF schools Bosh worse than he is Pau that is 3 of 5 positions were Dallas enjoys significant advantages. Butler should be back and playing by the WCF. The depth and the bench are other advantages that Dallas owns over MIA. At center we have 3 players all better than what Miami has.

At SG Dallas has Terry, Stevenson, Roddy, Kidd can even play there and so can Brewer. Lots of fouls if they want to get physical and beat Wade up a little at a time.

Butler Marion Peja all available to play SF that is serious depth Bron can't play 48 mins for every game.

They just don't have enough built around Wade and Bron to get it done.

[Nowitshe]

"Too much pride from the Lakers.

I could see them pushing it all the way to Game 6 in Dallas."

Its true they have a lot of pride how ever watching the game friday it seemed the Lakers just fell apart.

Also from the sound of Dirk it seems they know the Lakers are the Lakers and won't let up.

[myconsumerclub]

Yeah teams fall apart when you take the lead away and then make them start to crack under pressure from being desperate and letting it get under their skin. Dallas is the better team and will probably get to the finals out of the west. Now I need to start paying more attention to the EC games to see who we might play.

[ADoaN17]

idk if this has been posted yet but ...

@SnoopDogg
Lakers need 2 bench gasol he havn girl problems n he playn like a biitch. Trade dat punk n get d howard to help bynum n odom soft ass sucka!

Pretty funny

[Sucka]

Kobe is not sleeping, he's waiting.

Gonna be interesting to see how Kobe approaches the next week, i think he's going all out rambo style and firing at will. He's one of those players that will go out on his own terms and try to carry the entire team for the first time in these playoffs .... despite being injured and all.

[Mk0]

Kobe is not sleeping, he's waiting.

Gonna be interesting to see how Kobe approaches the next week, i think he's going all out rambo style and firing at will. He's one of those players that will go out on his own terms and try to carry the entire team for the first time in these playoffs .... despite being injured and all.

Funny enough I remember saying that before watching the Lakers fall to the Suns a few years ago, when Kobe quit on them. For some reason all season I have doubted his assassination skills. I hope he makes it interesting.

I agree with the previous post about the game being done in the 3rd. Either the Lakers wake up or Dallas seals the deal. Either way I expect a monster game from one of Kobe/Dirk. My gut says Dirk, even if the Mav's lose.