Dallas 94, Lakers 80: 'Mavs Doin' Work'

   In LA against the Lakers, the Mavs’ “special-event’’ uniforms have never been special.

   This was a dismantling of epic proportions both because of a late 22-point lead that settled into a … blowout and because it happens as rarely as Nicholson under-acts. The Mavs, all-time, were 10-51 when visiting the Lakers. Fancy new threads, massive leads and personal changes have rarely led to scoreboard changes.

   Until now.

   I’ve collected four major factors that contributed to LA’s “undoing’’ (it’s fun to use Rick Carlisle’s pet word on the other team for a change) ... and four major factors that contributed to Dallas’ ... um. ... doing.

   Let’s hate on LA first, with the Four Factors:

   1 The Lakers arrogance has served them well. They will quite possibly grow from this ... no, better said, they will quite possibly never even remember this as they move on to win a second consecutive title, and then a third, and then a fourth, by which time Kobe Bryant will be such a deity that he doesn’t even have to ask women for permission before he has sex with them.

   But why were those chuckleheads chuckling on the bench? Why did all of LA’s reserves seem to be auditioning to be Billy Crystal stand-ins?

   From an LA Times quickie review of the game:

   “OK, no one figured the Lakers would go undefeated this season, but no one thought they would lose their second game, either, a 94-80 beat-down tonight by the Dallas Mavericks at Staples Center.’’

   Really? There is such a large margin between the regal Lakers and the gutter-sucking Mavs that “no one thought’’ a Dallas win was even possible?

  2 Some of those Lakers have in the past shown an inability to play well with others. Temper-temper, children. Kobe Bryant earned himself a T because a ref had the audacity to disagree with The Drama Queen. And Ron Artest ... what was it Mark Cuban had said about him? That Crazy Pills might be a "distraction’’ to his own team?

   Cuban reiterated those thoughts for the benefit of the LA media before tipoff. ... and then Artest politely obliged the Mavs owner by making him look prescient.

   In the third quarter, a wildly-out-of-control Artest blatantly bulled into Dallas for his fourth foul – his third of the bullish offensive variety. His reaction was even more out of control as he earned a T for himself, too. And the timing was impeccable as in that third quarter the Mavs were in the process of assembling a 13-2 run to storm ahead, 73-54.

  3 Boy, that LA bench stinks.

   In the Lakers’ Game 1 win over the Clippers (you know, that win that had the Lakers thinking they might go 82-0) coach Phil JackZen  put the following fivesome on the floor together:

   Farmar, Vujacic, Powell, Mbenga and Walton. They were substandard in that win.

   Here, that bunch was a clown show, and when JackZen put most of those guys in a game together against Dallas, it was for the final give-up minutes.

     “That was one of the longest nights we've had in this building,'' JackZen said. ''We should refund the money to our fans.’’

     No need for a refund, Phil. Dying is easy. Comedy is hard. Your Lakers gave the audience both. Well worth the price of admission.   

   4 Kobe Bryant had 20 points. Not 70 or 60 or 50 or 40 or even the 34 he’s averaged over recent years. Just 20. And he achieved those the hard way, on a highly inefficient 6-for-19 shooting from the field. Overall, the Lakers made just 39.5 percent of their shots (last year, the Mavs were 11-1 when holding an opponent under 40 percent). But that’s all on Kobe ... and on the defense played against him.

   I mentioned Kidd. Shawn Marion and Quinton Ross were in the mix, too. And then there was a zone thing we'll get to in a moment.

   And now to those “Boys In Blue,’’ with Dallas’ Four Factors:

   1 This was a far more punishing style of play, on both ends, than Dallas exhibited in its marshmallowy opening loss to the Wizards. Dirk Nowitzki challenged and blocked a shot early, and in the third, when the Lakers threatened a bit, he single-handedly crushed an LA 2-on-1 break opportunity with a slap-away forced turnover. Kidd and others really banged on Kobe. Damp had 10 boards and eight points in 17 minutes.

   Oh, and how about Kris Humphries? Drew Gooden was the second center, but he left the game with what is apparently a rib/muscle injury. So in comes Kris, who flexed his muscles for 20 minutes and contributed eight points, seven rebounds and two steals. And ... it was Handsome Humphries’ unwillingness to back down from King Kobe that led to Bryant’s technical.

   He who uses his brain and his brawn shall get calls (so it is written) and the results were apparent: Kobe Bryant picked up two fouls in the first quarter. Lamardashian had three fouls in the first half. Ron Artest had three fouls in the first half, too, and spent the second half looking like he wanted to throw a water bottle at somebody. (Artest had more fouls in the first half than he had points in the game; he was good for three points on 1-of-6 shooting.)

   Said JackZen of Artest specifically: Nothing seemed to be happening right out there for him tonight," Jackson said. "I thought he was playing a little too hard for the game, didn't measure the refereeing out."

   Hell, isn’t that pretty much a repackaging of what Cuban had said about Artest?

   2 Meanwhile, the positive physical play earned the Mavs a parade to the free-throw line.  There was a time in the Lakers-Mavs series when Kobe was allowed to pitch a tent there; he’d get 20, 25 free throws a game by outfoxing Dallas defenders.

     Not this time.

     Dallas got to the line 32 times and made 25 of those. (In comparison, LA earned just 14 free throws.) That effort was led by Dirk Nowitzki, who was 10-of-11 and is now 22-of- 24 in two games.

    That’s positively Kobesque. ... It’s almost D-Wadey.

    The UberMan did a little bit of everything here: The aforementioned defensive sequences, 21 points (marking his 27^th straight game with 20-plus), 10 rebounds. ... but 32 free throws rewarded to his team on the road and at the Lakers?   That’s a tone-setter.

    And certainly no Griff ins Klos, eh, Dirk?

   “We were very aggressive,’’ Carlisle said, “and it showed in the number of times we got to the line. This is going to be key to our success, if we're persistent.’’

    3 The 3-PG Attack worked. I don't love it. It might go away when Josh Howard comes back. (While Josh pushed the ankle in a workout at the gym, ESPN's Ric Bucher said he is told J-Ho might return in a week.) It was a disaster against the Wizards, and predictably so, at least on the defensive end, when even Washington’s “smalls’’ tower over Dallas guards Jason Terry and JJ Barea. But it’s a better fit against the Lakers and guys like Derek Fisher, especially when the Mavs tuck Jet and JJB into a zone defense.

    When they did that, there were times when Kobe moved to Barea’s wing, hoping to take advantage of the mismatch. But it appeared that JJB tried to take away some of Bryant’s favorite spots (presumably, Jet did the same thing on the other side, too), making the zone an effective one.

    And of course, The 3-PG Attack is designed to be at its most effective on the offensive end, when each of the three erstwhile PGs did their thing, Jet trying to get out of a perimter-shooting rut with a 16-point game, JJB speeding by defenders for his 12 points, and Jason Kidd in control for 11 assists.

    4 Easy baskets. Lamardashian really gave Dirk trouble last year. Andrew Bynum should be a rim-protector. Kobe is an All-World defender. And so is Artest. Yet in crunch time, the Mavs turned to the one guy on the roster most capable of getting easy baskets – and they were easy, even against the arsenal of LA defenders.

    There was a string in the fourth when according to my scribbly notes, the Mavs almost stubbornly ran a series of pick-and-rolls with The Matrix as the featured guy. This I know for sure: Marion finished with 18 points in part by scoring eight straight points – eight straight easy points. ... pick-and-rolls and tip-ins and lay-ups. The "easy'' stuff.

    And in the end, the whole thing was easy. It hadn’t happened at the Staples Center in six tries, since March 11, 2007. And it hadn’t happened in LA more than 10 times in the entire history of the Mavs franchise.

   ''It's a big win, character-wise,’’ said Kidd, who is in part in charge of gauging such things around here. ''It helps us gain confidence on the road that we can play with the best.''
    It was special. There was star power. And the Mavs really never were that far behind the “unbeatable’’ Lakers. 

The Lakers-Dallas boxscore