Lakers share the load to topple Mavericks
Jan 15th, 2010 by Aaron Hotchner
Dallas Grab Mr. Peabody & we™ll hop in the WABAC Machine. Way back to when the Lakers were lost in the wilderness, missing the playoffs for the first time in a decade. Back to a time when Kobe Bryant carried the team on his back, singlehandedly winning games with a talent us weekend warriors only dream about. Back to when he didn™t trust his teammates, feeling the burden of victory & defeat alone, rarely passing the ball, putting up massive points but still losing games. Sure he can score 81 points in a game, the water cooler talkers said but what about the rest of the team?
Back in the present day, Wednesday January 13th found the Lakers facing a Western Conference power in the Dallas Mavericks, a night after being trampled by San Antonio for a 20 point road loss. Missing All-Star power forward Pau Gasol & with Kobe suffering crippling back spasms, prospects for an L.A. win seemed remote at best.
However, with center Andrew Bynum leading a balanced attack that saw five players score in double figures, the Lakers confounded expectations to hand those Mavericks a 100-95 defeat. Playing with a confidence & care that belies his 23 years of age, Bynum shot 72% from the field & went 6 of 7 from the charity stripe, chalking up 22 points & 11 boards. Used to coming off the bench, Lamar Odom started & played 44 minutes, ending the night with 18 points & 14 rebounds. Ron Artest, picked up by L.A. in the offseason & sometimes seeming lost in their complex offense, contributed 16 points & 11 rebounds. It was Kobe in fact, that scored the least amongst the five double figures Lakers, with only 10 points to his credit, all of which came in the second half.
With his 30 points, 15 of which came during the fourth quarter, Mav™s star Dirk Nowitzki joined 33 other NBA greats as the only players to have scored more than 20,000 in their careers, becoming the first European player with that distinction. Leading Dallas in rebounds with 16, none in the nearly sell-out crowd could doubt Nowitzki™s brilliance.
On this historic night for their franchise player, the Mavs also out-shot L.A. from the three point line, clocked 8 more assists & turned the ball over 8 fewer times. With two day™s worth of time to rest & prepare for a Lakers squad weary from their Tuesday night bout with the Spurs, the plain truth is that Dallas simply failed to execute in several key areas. They were out-rebounded, especially on the defensive end of the game. They bricked six free throws in a game they lost by five points. Finally, with Kobe playing only 11 minutes in a first half where he air-balled the only shot he attempted, the Mavs were still outscored by four points.
With their second straight loss in the American Airlines Arena, the Mavs are now in a strange position: better on the road (13-6) than they are at home 12 & 7. Meanwhile, the Lakers notched their 3,000th franchise victory, 624 of those coming in the current P-Jacks era alone.