It was 35 years ago today. Dallas comes to town winners of 13 in a row, the most recent one an impressive win against San Antonio Friday. This would be an appropriate day for that streak to end — it is the 35th anniversary of the end of the Lakers record 33-game win streak. That team (led by Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain) started the season 6-3 then got hot and won every game from mid-November through their fourth game in January.
That Laker team went on to win the title, this Mavs team might yet.
I must have had too much single malt Friday night. I could have sworn I saw Shammond Williams and Aaron McKie on the floor at the same time.
Kobe does his best John Stockton impression. Kobe was dishing and every other Laker starter shot 70% (eFG%) and ended up with an offensive rating (points per 100 possessions used) of 136 or higher. That will win you a lot of games. Also in that game, as was mentioned the comments, it was good to see Bynum have two good games in a row – especially since he’ll have to have a third for the Lakers to have a chance tonight, he needs to ready to rotate and stop Terry, Harris and Howard from winning the game in the paint.
Last meeting. When the Lakers and Mavs got together last month, Dallas won because their starters dramatically outplayed the Laker starters. There were a couple of mitigating factors – it was the second game of a back-to-back and the Lakers first without Lamar Odom.
The Lakers forwards that night – Walton and Radmanovic – had bad nights. Meanwhile, the Mavs got big nights out of Josh Howard (29 points, 60.5% shooting), Jason Terry (26 points on 60% shooting and a crazy offensive rating of 143), and of course Dirk Nowitzki (23 points on 57% shooting, 14 rebounds and 8 assists). Then off the bench there was speedy Devin Harris, with 14 points on 83.3% (eFG%) shooting,
The Mavs took the lead early and that game, but late in the third and into the start of the fourth – when the Lakers subs got minutes – they tied the game up. Then Dallas put its starters back in and, well, that was that.
About this game: I’m not worried about the Lakers scoring, they were the last team to break 100 on the Mavs and the Laker offense has not been the problem.
But this needs to be the team’s best defensive game of the year for them to have a chance. Cook and Radman have to play well on Dirk (this is a game we really miss Lamar), Bynum needs to intimidate Terry, Harris and Howard in the paint and still keep Dampier off the boards. Smush/Farmar/Sasha have to step up on the Dallas points. It will have to be a team effort.
Derek Banducci says
The Lakers’ scoring may not be a problem tonight, but their offense might be a problem, as it often has been this year. This is because when the Lakers fail to move the ball around, fail to execute the triangle, and fail to successfully pound the ball down low, then that hurts their defense because it leads to fast breaks and turnover points.
In other words, if Dallas runs a zone and the Lakers settle for too many three-point attempts then that will lead to long rebounds and fast breaks, even if the Lakers do make a reasonable percentage of their attempts.
ian says
I think the mavs will not quickly forget Kobe’s 62 from last season and will bring their A game to every Laker game for a while, I see a severe pounding in the Lakers near future.
nnd says
dirk scares me
ian says
(3) just remember Hasselhoff
ian says
I really love these games where the Lakers incrdible home court advantage shows up in the FT totals.
CTDeLude says
Certainly shows that the Mavs are in trouble if we have are whole dang team healthy.
Kas says
This is fun.
Kurt says
You know, we might really have something here.
ian says
I love being proved wrong like that.
CTDeLude says
We may very well have something. We are something.
Kurt says
So do we inject Sasha into the Smush/Farmar discussion? (Granted, Sasha can be part of a small lineup as the two with Smush as the one and Kobe as the three, like the Lakers used late against Big D).
CTDeLude says
I just think Sasha is finally translating his shot from practice to the actual game. Nevermind he’s actually incorporating going into the hole to add something to his game.
chris henderson says
I liked that the Lakers never hung their head and stopped trying, the fact that they never gave up is why they won…if you don’t quit, you can’t fail.
all this is great for the players who fall into “non-starters”…guys like Ronny getting all this PT, young Drew, Sasha, etc etc ect…
just think how crazy this is going to get when we get Lamar back, and then Kwame as well.
deepest team in the league.