Lakers-Mavs Preview: LA's 7 Deadly Sins Of Vulnerability

Mike Fisher -- DB.com

   Are the Lakers vulnerable?

   Yes. In fact, at this moment, I count up Seven (Semi)-Deadly Sins of Vulnerability.

   As they limp into the AAC tonight for a third heavyweight bout with the Mavs – I say “limp’’ because they are so beat up that they skipped their scheduled Wednesday morning shootaround – the Lakers are vulnerable.

   Let us count the ways:

   1. KOBE’S FINGER This deserves a section all its own, because even without other teammates’ ailments and even without Kobe’s other ailments, this one has affected him for a week. In Sunday’s blowout of the Bucks, Kobe was 4-of-21. In a four-game streak not counting last night in San Antonio, Kobe was 37–of-111.

   Now, you can throw in the performance vs. the Spurs, where The Drama Queen was 7-of-10 …

   Or you can throw out that performance, because more than his finger started bothering him, as he retired to the locker room with back problems. … and still, he played 32 minutes in a 105-85 loss.

   Kobe’s still getting his points. … Last I checked (at 6 p.m.) he plans on playing tonight, and look for him to score 25, as usual.

   But it might be a hard 25, an inefficient 25, a bad 25. …

   2. KOBE’S BACK AND THE OTHER INJURIES So Kobe is playing with fractured right index finger. And Pau Gasol is presumably still out with a hamstring problem. And something is wrong with Ron Artest’s right hand. … one of many physical issues that has hampered him this year. And Sasha Vujacic has a hammy problem.  Luke Walton’s been out. And Adam Morrison has the flu or something.
   Oh, and in the fourth quarter of last night’s embarrassing loss at the Alamo, Kobe went bye-bye, trudging through the tunnel to get treatment for back spasms.

   The Mavs have some of their own concerns in this department, Erick Dampier’s balky knee (he’ll try to go), Josh Howard (who might start?), Tim Thomas (I’m told he’s out) …

   You get the feeling that whichever team can rub some dirt on it might be the last one standing tonight.

   3. THE LOSING STREAKS They are 29-9, with a healthy enough lead in the West over 25-12 Dallas. But they are just 8-6 on the road. They have lost four straight on the road. And overall, since Christmas Eve, they are wobbling about at just above .500 with a 6-5 record.

Even grand teams like the Lakers have their downs with their ups, but this speaks to something missing. …

4. DOES PORTLAND KNOW WHAT THAT ‘SOMETHING’ IS? The Lakers have lost nine straight games in Portland. Can we assume that the Mavs staffers have gone through years of Blazers-Lakers film ‘til their eyes bled?

   5. LA WITHOUT GASOL You know that it only seems like the Lakers win the NBA title every year, right?

   In the decade, the Lakers won four NBA titles. The Lakers won 530 regular-season games. The Lakers won 98 playoff games.

   But … they don’t win it every year. The 2004-05 Lakers didn’t even make the playoffs. For a three-year span there, they were quite mortal.

   How does this relate to their vulnerability? Well, those three seasons were all about “Kobe & The Merry Minimums,’’ and they weren’t very special.

    This all points to the importance of Pau Gasol. When he does not play, the Lakers are indeed vulnerable. And when he does? Well, that’s why Dirk Nowitzki recently said the whole league “is mad’’ at Memphis for so generously gifting Gasol to the Lakers in 2007.

   6. THE DEPTH Mavs coach Rick Carlisle touched on this in his pregame address with the media. In that recent loss at LA, the Dallas bench was dominated on the scoreboard. What the Mavs hope to see tonight: Players like Jordan Farmar (7.0 ppg) and Sasha Vujacic (2.2 ppg) being held to where they belong.

   “We’ve got to take that challenge,’’ Carlisle said of bench-vs.-bench, especially so inasmuch as his tools include Jason Terry (16.6 ppg), Drew Gooden (8.1 ppg, 7.1 rebounds per) and either Howard (13.1 ppg) or JJ Barea (9.5 ppg) off that bench.

   7. THE MATCHUPS If you only saw LA recently beat Dallas by 35, you might not get this. Hey, if you only saw Dallas beat LA just as badly in Game 2 of this seaon, you might not get it in the other direction. But as talented as the when-healthy Lakers are, the Mavs do have some length (Dirk, Damp, Gooden, Marion, Josh) to combat their length, and the Mavs do have some weaknesses (lack of great perimeter quickness on defense) that isn’t really a problem against LA. (Recognizing, of course, that Kobe is a special problem all his own.)

   I’m not going to go as far as Mark Cuban eventually will; you watch: He’ll soon announce “We WANT To Play The Lakers In The Playoffs!!’’ … I will simply keep beating this drum: The Lakers are vulnerable – at least temporarily, meaning tonight – and if the Mavs can continue to establish themselves as the second best team in the West as of Tuesday, they set themselves up for a possible Western Conference Finals bout with … the Lakers.

   And then we’ll get to do this all over again.