For the first time the battle of the all-stars: Dirk vs. Kobe; the battle of the one-liners: Cuban vs. PJax; and the six-man battle: Lamar Odom vs. Jason Terry.
The Lakers are the cream of the crop, and have been playing entitled basketball throughout the last two years. The New Orleans Hornets gave the Lakers a nice slap to the face, and may have woken them up a bit. Dallas fought off a tough Blazers squad in six games, but both teams will need to play at higher level in order to make it to the Conference Finals.
The Mavs lost of Caron Butler to injury early in the season hurts the Mavs in the defending Kobe Bryant department, and Andrew Bynum enjoys posting up Tyson Chandler averaging 16.7 points on 70.4 percent shooting with 11.7 boards against Dallas. Chandler averaged 5.7 points and 8.7 boards on 46.2 percent shooting against the Lakers.
Both of the Mavs regular season losses to the Lakers were by an average of 15.5 points per game. Dallas is 16-0 in regular season and playoffs when Dirk attempts at least 10+ free throws. First team to criticize the refs wins!
Game 1: Mon., May 2, at Staples Center, 7:30 p.m. Pacific (TNT)
Game 2: Wed., May 4, at Staples Center, 7:30 p.m. Pacific (TNT)
Game 3: Fri., May 6, at Dallas, 6:30 p.m. Pacific (ESPN)
Game 4: Sun., May 8, at Dallas, 12:30 p.m. Pacific (ABC)
Game 5 (if necessary): Tue., May 10, at Staples Center, TBD (TNT)
Game 6 (if necessary): Thurs., May 12, at Dallas, TBD (ESPN)
Game 7 (if necessary): Sun., May 15, at Staples Center, 12:30 p.m. Pacific (ABC)
