They’re Playing Basketball!

We’re one game into the NBA Conference Semifinals and we’ve already got three upsets brewing. The Memphis Grizzlies continued the spring of the bear with their Game 1 win against Oklahoma City. Memphis’ kodiak grizzlies, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol combined for 54 points, again swinging the pendulum in the “who got the better of the Kendrick Perkins trade” discussion.

Meanwhile, Atlanta used a big performance by former All-Star Joe Johnson to steal the first game from the upstart Bulls. To make things worse in Chi-Town Derrick Rose, the newly (unofficially) announced NBA MVP, re-aggravated his ankle near the end of the game.

And Sunday the Boston Celtics fell victim to a physical gameplan by the Miami Heat and terrific performance by Dwayne Wade. The highlight was Paul Pierce losing track of his technical fouls and his mind by getting tossed after an altercation with Wade.

But obviously this is all child’s play compared to Game 1 between the defending champ L.A. Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks. The game, plagued by questionable calls and more questionable offensive play by the Lakers, featured several lopsided streaks by both teams and ended with L.A. losing after two squandered and utterly pathetic final possessions.



Kobe Bryant, who appeared he could do no wrong in the third quarter faltered in crunch time with a missed exchange with Pau Gasol that led to a Jason Kidd steal and then clanked a three pointer to end the game. You certainly can’t blame Kobe who hit his playoff high with 36 points and took the game over at times when the Laker offense was at its worst.

And to be fair to Gasol, he had 15 points and 11 boards for one of his better games in the playoffs, although his foul on Dirk Nowitzki with 19 seconds remaining was stupid at best, as it allowed the Mavs to get the lead.

The win certainly has to feel good for the Mavs who have been cursed in the playoffs since their loss in the ’06 Finals, especially since the team winning the first game goes on to win the series 78% of the time. And I can say for all Laker fans it feels like a missed opportunity, seeing as the last minute of the game was executed as poorly as possible by the Lakers and that Phil Jackson has never lost a playoff series after winning Game 1.

It sucks, but it’s not over. This is the third time L.A. has dropped Game 1 in the last two years (last round vs. Hornets, 2010 Finals vs. Celtics and 2010 vs. Thunder) and the Lakers obviously prevailed in each of those series. But if these playoffs continue as they have been Kobe isn’t going to go for 36 again and the Lakers will have to get more offense from other sources (Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum) and play better defense against every Mav not named Nowitzki.

Odom, the best of the weak Laker bench, has to be more assertive and effective and every Laker needs to feed Bynum more. The big man is obviously at the mercy of his teammates to jump start his game and they deserted him often in Game 1.

I’ll have to admit my butt is puckered a bit going into Game 2 but I’d like to think that despite the 78% statistic, history is still on the Lakers’ side. Anyway, 78% of stats are made up on the spot.