The Lake (no)Show
Why the Lakers got swept by the Mavericks
by Jay Kaplan, OTSL Head Writer/Analyst

As I watched Game 4 of the NBA second round series between the Dallas Mavericks and the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers go to halftime with the Lakers down 63-39, I was reminded of a scene fr0m the movie "The Replacements". Head Coach Jimmy McGinty is asked by a sideline reporter what the Washington Sentinels will need to overcome the big halftime deficit in a game they must win to make the playoffs. His reply? "Heart." When pressed by the reporter, he taps his chest with his game plan and says "Miles and miles of heart."

The reason this scene popped into my head was because heart was exactly what I did not see from the Lakers. Not just in Game 4 which ended in a 122-86 series-sweeping rout by the Mavs; but throughout the entire series.

I kept waiting for the Lakers to flip that switch and become "that team". You know the one with the cast of characters like "Kobe The Ruthless" - able to score on anyone, anytime and win a series by nothing more than the sheer force of his will.

That team also had a talented AND tough Power Forward named Pau who played the game with equal parts skill and power and was good for a double-double every game. There was D-Fish the respected team elder who invariably made HUGE, clutch shots every game. Andrew the Younger gave them yet another low-post scorer, rebounder and tough, physical, shot-blocking defender of that sacred area called "The Paint". And finally there was Lamar and Ron, homeboys from NYC who could play multiple positions, provide ball-handling, clutch scoring, physical D, match-up problems, celebrity significant others and shout outs to therapists. All led by the Zen Master, whose ability to blend egos and talents together to make champions was legen - wait for it - dary as the rings for every finger would attest.

I kept waiting for that team to show up. But it never did. Not in Game 1 when the Lakers blew a 16 point lead yet still had two excellent chances to win the game but Pau Gasol butter-fingered his chance and Kobe flat out bricked his.

Not in Game 2 which saw the Lakers fall 93-81. They missed their first 15 triples (they finished 2-20 from beyond the arc); couldn't guard Dirk Nowitzki (24 points) for the second straight game; got a 3-12 performance from Odom, the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year and saw Artest - their reputed defensive stopper - clothesline reserve Dallas Guard JJ Barrea (whose 12 points led a Mav's bench that outscored LA's 30-12)) with 24 seconds left in a game in which they only managed 32 points for the entire second half.

Completely losing home court would have been bad enough - LA was 2-16 (now 2-17) all time when losing the first two of a seven game series (most recently the 2008 Finals against Boston) - but to hear Andrew Bynum of all people to say after the game that the Lakers flat out have trust issues only added insult to injury. It raised the possibility that the Lakers were not only being undone by their erratic play on the court, but by a locker room in disarray.

That team I mentioned earlier would surely show up in Game 3 right? After all none of Phil Jackson's teams had EVER been swept in a post-season series in the 20 years he'd been manning an NBA bench. So surely they'd show up for Game 3 right? Nope.

Game 3 pretty much resembled Game 1. The Lakers were up by 7 with 5:05 to go when their defense betrayed them. The Mavs went on a 20-7 run led by Nowitzki (32 points) en route to a 32 point quarter that was highlighted by what Kobe referred to as "some of the dumbest defensive mistakes I've seen us make all year." It all added up to a 98-92 Dallas win putting them up 3-0 and in position for the unimaginable scenario: sweeping the Lakers out of the playoffs. After all, none of the previous 98 NBA teams that were down 0-3 ever came back.

Which brings us back to where I started this piece - Game 4. With their season, the defense of their back-to-back titles and Phil's retirement send-off on the line you'd expect that this game of all games would be the one where "That" team would FINALLY show up. That they'd fight tooth, nail, and every other body part on every possession for all 48 minutes. They'd make sure that if they went down, they'd go down fighting, leaving it all out on the floor. Yeah, not so much.

LA came out flat and stayed that way. Dallas didn't just make it rain from beyond the arc, they let loose a torrential downpour of three point field goals. Jason Terry's 9 led the way as Dallas tied an NBA post-season record with 20 3's (on 21 attempts). The Mavs didn't even need an All-Star performance from Dirk (17 points) to sweep LA, getting 32 from Terry, 22 from JJ Barea and 21 from Peja Stojakovic (6-6 from 3) -all of whom come off the Mavs bench - to make the Lakers the 99th team not to come back after losing the first three games of a seven game series.

As for that bush-league stuff that Odom and to a greater extent Bynum pulled at the end of the game? Don't even get me started. Odom's was more frsutration than anything and didn't seem to have any malicious intent. Bynum on the other hand, well I've seen muggings on 125th Street that were more polite. That garbage has no business in the game and does nothing but disgrace the Lakers, the NBA and the game of basketball. Okay, so you got me started, but this is where I stop.

Yes, the Dallas Mavericks get plenty of credit for the sweep. They executed their game plan on both sides of the ball almost flawlessly. They owned games 2 and 4 and came up with HUGE 4th quarters (the quarter that typically belonged to "That" team) in games 1 and 3 to win both. They played the vaunted Los Angeles Front Court to a standstill - which goes in the "W" column for Dallas as no one was supposed to be able to handle the LA Big Men. Their bench thoroughly outplayed LA's, exposing it for the weakness it's been for some time now once you get past Odom (a match-up advantage LA never managed to take advantage of in this series). And Rick Carlisle, RICK CARLISLE, out-coached the Zen Master.

That said, this is a series that LA woulda, coulda, shoulda won but didn't for one simple reason: heart. Miles and miles of heart. Dallas had it, LA didn't and because of that, not even Shane Falco could have saved the Lakers from their fate.