Monday, March 17, 2008

Big Week opens with Lakers

Is there a record the Mavericks are shooting for in these next three games that will be satisfactory? Of course everyone is gunning for 3-0 with the Lakers, Celtics and Spurs set to parade through American Airlines Center.

Will 2-1 be okay? How will 1-2 play out in local precincts? Do the guys most responsible for that record care how it reads after the Spurs visit Sunday?

“We don’t ever want to lose,” Jerry Stackhouse said. “We want to beat these teams to plant a seed of doubt. We hadn’t beaten them since they’ve made their changes, the Lakers in particular. We need to plant a seed of doubt in their heads, but I don’t think we need to get into the numbers game.

“It’s not going to break us and it’s not going to make us. We go 3-0 and we’ve still got a lot of season left to figure out where we’re going to be in the playoff race. It’s going to have absolutely no bearing on the postseason. Just for our own psyche, we want that confidence from the week that we’ve had against these lesser teams to carry over.”

The Mavs ran through five Eastern Conference cupcakes in impressive fashion. They never trailed in any game, winning by an average of nearly 24 points. These next three aren’t cupcakes.

And against this trio, close won’t cut it. At least that’s a popular opinion after narrow losses to the Lakers, Spurs and Jazz shortly after the Jason Kidd trade. The Mavs led each in the fourth quarter only to get nipped at the finish line.

Read the rest of this story and get a preview of the Lakers in today’s notebook at mavs.com.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's hope someone on the Mavs took notice on the way Battier defended Kobe. Tuesday's game is one the Mavs can definitely win.

Anonymous said...

You got that right Ryan.Shane had his Hand litereally an inch from Kobes' face every time he tried a jump shot.The bad part is that Shane is a bit quick.He has better lateral movement in my opinion than Josh H. does,that might negate your point altogether.Hopefully we can keep Kobe to Between 24 and 29 points this time around.Go MAVS.


Just a Fan,
Joe Miranda

Anonymous said...

I think a good start would be limiting the Lakers to under 50 free throw attempts this time. Of course that's something that the Mavs have only so much control over. Being at home should help - we'll see.

Anonymous said...

Netjunkie78,Did you mean the Mavs or the refs have control over the number of free throws taken against us.Lol