What Happened to the '11 Lakers?

[Dupp]

They got dirked. That game 4 beat down was one of the most fun games to watch ever.

[Texas Chuck]

FWIW I have been re-watching all these games from 2011 with no basketball and what the Mavs to a man said about the Heat defense in the press conferences after game 6 was that they realized right away that the Heat were over-helping so they just kept making an extra pass or two and kept getting really good shots. They just weren't making them the first few games--particularly Terry. Once they started making the high quality shots they were getting, it was church. Spo and his staff either didn't know to make that adjustment or their talent only knew the one way to play. But the Mavs talked about how they used the Heat' athleticism against them in that regard. Then on the flip side the Heat never did solve the Mavs zone.

[Liam_Gallagher]

Lakers' team was out of gas/unmotivated and hasn't won a playoff series since.

They were the 3 seed the next year and beat Denver first round, and probably should have beaten OKC in 2nd round - they botched games 2 and 4 and lost in 5.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

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

He was amazing, a machine, he made no mistakes at all. The lakers had no chance.

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[TheBonzaiEffect]

Dirk.

Seriously, it was Dirk.

One-on-one, he absolutely sauteed Pau, Odom, Bynom...whoever they put on him. LA had to double him in the post and stick to him like glue on the high PnR, which led to wide open threes for Terry, Kidd, and Peja, and wide open lanes to the basket for JJB. It wasn't like these guys just played out of their minds (okay, in game 4 they did), but Dirk was making life so easy for everyone.

He was also obscenely clutch and won games 1 and 3 down the stretch with huge baskets when the game was in the balance.

[TheBonzaiEffect]

Also, don't forget, the Lakers were up by like 15 in the 3rd quarter of Game 1. A lowkey moment was RC putting Brewer into the game. His energy was contagious.

Dirk came back into the game in the 4th with 5 minutes left. Dallas was down by 5 at that point. Dirk scored 6 of the last 11 Mavs points.

Kobe hit a shot with a minute left to put L.A. up by 3. Game could have easily been over then. Instead, Dirk hit a ridiculously tough shot over Odom IIRC. Down by 1, 40 seconds left. Kobe turns it over. Pau fouls Dirk, Dirk hits both FTs (of course). Game over.

I honestly have never seen a more consistently clutch playoff run than Dirk's 2011. He was just a man on a mission, and in the 4th quarter, he wouldn't be denied.

[Goudelock]

Dirk.

Seriously, it was Dirk.

One-on-one, he absolutely sauteed Pau, Odom, Bynom...whoever they put on him. LA had to double him in the post and stick to him like glue on the high PnR, which led to wide open threes for Terry, Kidd, and Peja, and wide open lanes to the basket for JJB. It wasn't like these guys just played out of their minds (okay, in game 4 they did), but Dirk was making life so easy for everyone.

Watching Dallas spread the floor with five shooters and roast the Lakers bigs in the PnR with Terry/Barea and Dirk was like watching a game from the future.

Like I distinctly remember a younger me watching that game and wondering if that's how all NBA teams would eventually play, since it seemed unstoppable and unfair for everyone to be able to shoot like that.

[Cool_Dude]

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?

A number of things:

1) Their rotation really wasn’t as good as it looks on paper. That team lacked shooting, speed, and athleticism, (particularly at the 1 and the 3 they were very slow and unathletic). This really hurt them in terms of containing Barea and Terry.

Guys like Jordan Farmar and Sasha Vujacic, both of whom were gone by that point, would actually have helped here. Jackson acknowledged after the series that the Lakers needed to add some speed and an ability to push the ball up the floor to be able to score in a way that isn’t always in a set offense.

2) Dallas was the deeper team and Phil Jackson acknowledged that after the series as well.

3) Dallas was the first team that the Lakers met in the playoffs that had enough size (more than enough, actually) to neutralize the Lakers front line. Between 7’1 Chandler, 7’0 Haywood, 7’0 Dirk, and even at other positions with guys like 6’10 Peja, the Mavs had the ability to keep two seven footers on the floor pretty much at all times.

4) Dallas had the shooting to spread the Lakers size out, pulling at least one of the Lakers seven footers away from the basket at all times. This helped make it easier for Barea to penetrate. The Lakers always had problems with speedy guards and the Mavs had the shooting to make the Lakers pay again and again.

5) Phil Jackson failed to utilize the Popovich strategy of resting his guys throughout the season. Kobe, Gasol, Odom, Artest, and Fisher all played all 82 games that season, which is absurd for an older team trying to make its fourth finals in a row. This contributed to them being burned out more than they should have been.

Pau Gasol especially was burned out because Jackson rode him into the ground early in the season when Bynum was out. Gasol should not have averaged 37 minutes per game for 82 games trying to make it to a fourth straight finals. It’s no wonder he struggled against Dallas.

[LAKESHOW]

That was the turning point to a faster paced NBA. That run of successive speed teams, culminating with a fantastic GS warrior run. And finally broken by a bigger stronger interior team from Toronto. Toronto's interior size was too overwhelming for GS to overcome.
That type of size to win a Championship hadn't been seen since, that 2010 - 2011 LAKERs.
So one could say, that would be the 2011 Maverick Legacy. They restarted the run and gun style of play that lasted for a Decade. And resulted in a new era of play, multiple chips for run and gun teams, and ending with the Raptors.

[carnage24]

Game 1 the lakers has a pretty big lead in the 2nd half but the mavs clawed back. that last sequence could have gone either way. A game the lakers should have won

Game 3 was also kind of crazy, another game LA should have won but that last 3 minutes was just poor decisions and just blunder after blunder(Derek fish turnover, kobes poor shot selection)

In essence LA should had a 2-1 lead against the mavs at that point but really you guys alluded to the deep concerns with that roster. Age, injuries, thin bench and WTF HAPPENED TO GASOL.

We sort of saw a similar thing happen in the 2012 WCSF. The lakers had an opportunity to lead that series but blew it in close 4th quarters

[carlquincy]

Bynum was supposed to be the key. Wasnt that the season where he said in the tune of "note to self, play defense and we will win easy" in the playoffs. After that, he played like a wet rag.

Also obviously, Dallas were awesome that year.

[NPZ]

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

That's a big aspect people will just gloss over in the attempt to find just one cause for a complex result. It's never just one thing. Dallas swept them, it should be obvious that the Lakers were done and/or it was a bad mismatch and/or some teams have a "year" where they can't lose. Nothing happened in 2011 that didn't happen in 2003.

And WTF at 2011? How many people here are really too young to remember 2011? Are you people going thru puberty or what? I could understand a 2003 thread, but 2011? 2003 wasn't the smartphone era, 2011 is.

[NPZ]

Bynum was supposed to be the key. Wasnt that the season where he said in the tune of "note to self, play defense and we will win easy" in the playoffs. After that, he played like a wet rag.

Also obviously, Dallas were awesome that year.

Drew with a nasty flagrant 2 on JJB to end Drew's participation in the series a little earlier than the rest, btw.

[Jasen777]

Drew with a nasty flagrant 2 on JJB to end Drew's participation in the series a little earlier than the rest, btw.

He was mad.

[chefy]

Kobe was tired af and playing with no legs, it was very very hard to watch. The entire team was tired. 3 final appearances plus the olympics. 4th run is always the hardest, there's a reason no one has done it in the modern era of NBA. Lebron, Wade and Bosh almost got swept on their 4th run and they were all in their primes.

And Dirk was just unguardable.

[hoosierdaddy34]

A couple things, but one of the biggest issues that no one talks about was that Phil had basically mailed it in that season. Maybe his battles with Jim had finally gotten to him, maybe he didn’t like the vibe of the team, or maybe he had just gotten too old and stale but he did an atrocious coaching job that year.

But also that Laker team clearly didn’t gel. It was clear Bynum thought he was better than he really was and sort of gave up in the playoffs when he was still behind Kobe and Pau in the pecking order. In hindsight it truly was the first red flag that this guy just didn’t mentally have what it took to be a good NBA player, and when his injuries hit he just gave up.

Artest and Fisher were not the players they had been earlier in their career.

And Kobe was clearly dealing with a injuries and wasn’t close to a hundred %.

They ran into a buzz saw, a team of destiny in Dallas. I still don’t think I’ve seen a team play that far above their heads...possibly ever. Every shot seemingly went in for a two month stretch. It was crazy and the Lakers as described above weren’t mentally or physically in a place to combat it.

[lamscott]

Everyone on the Mavs sent Xgames mode. Dirk went god mode. JJ Barea could not miss.

Also, the Lakers were internally a mess.

[Odinn21]

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.

The feel I got from them was, it wasn't just the media or the fans, also the team expected to flip the switch themselves and they forgot it was up to them.

After going 17-1 after the All-Star break, they thought they could flip it again in the playoffs. But they were wrong.

And, no. They weren't making the NBA Finals in such condition.

[Jasen777]

They ran into a buzz saw, a team of destiny in Dallas. I still don’t think I’ve seen a team play that far above their heads...possibly ever. Every shot seemingly went in for a two month stretch. It was crazy and the Lakers as described above weren’t mentally or physically in a place to combat it.

"Team of destiny," perhaps. But they were a damn good team filled with veteran players who understood and accepted their roles, perfectly constructed around Dirk. The Mother's Day Massacre was them playing over their heads and then the Lakers folding, Dirk did actually activate god mode a couple times against the Thunder, but by in large they played in the playoffs like they did in the regular season with Dirk active.

[NPZ]

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.

The feel I got from them was, it wasn't just the media or the fans, also the team expected to flip the switch themselves and they forgot it was up to them.

After going 17-1 after the All-Star break, they thought they could flip it again in the playoffs. But they were wrong.

And, no. They weren't making the NBA Finals in such condition.

The earlier version of the 3peat Lakers also played that flip the switch thing til it got tiresome as hell. Phil told them, "You disgust me," in year two. That team had more large combacks than any other team since within a 4 yr span. They came back from 27 in a 4th Qtr vs Dallas in 03. The 2000 G7 and 2002 G4 comebacks are legendary NBA moments. That stuff both made them very good and experienced at comebacks, but sooner or later, you'll flip the switch to find out the bulb is kaput. The 2003 Lakers were .500 on Feb 1st and had to go on a tear to win 50 and make the playoffs. RealGM at the time thought they were toast until March, but that's RGM for ya.