Dallas takes the lead over Los Angeles

The Mavericks overcame a 16-point deficit to win game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Lakers.

Let’s go straight into Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals between the Los Angeles Lakes and Dallas Mavericks at the Staples Center. The Mavs were up by two and the defending champions left in Kobe Bryant all their hopes for a crunch time shot, but he missed. This was how Dallas won their first on the road Playoff game against L.A. in franchise history.

Just like in the series against the New Orleans Hornets the Lakers have failed to win game 1 at home. There’s a slight difference thought; this past Monday they blew a 16-point lead to end up losing the first game of the Western Conference semifinals by 96-94 against the Mavericks.

For Phil Jackson the only explanation for this loss is that they "gave the game away" he said. This is something that we have to agree with for it is very hard to find another explanation to the Lakers’ decay in the second half.

To be more precise and using Andrew Bynum’s words this game wasn’t lost "at the end. We lost it in the third quarter," he said.

It is not like the Mavericks didn’t do their thing and we wanted to detract their effort, but the truth is that the Lakers lost this game all by themselves. The proofs are evident: not only did they waste a 16-point lead, but also missed two last seconds shots that could have earned them the victory.

Those two last seconds chances were ironically missed the top scorer of the game: Kobe Bryant, who finished the night with 36 points, and not the 39 that he could have reached if his crunch time tree-pointer would have gone in.

Don’t get us wrong, we don’t want to detract Dallas. It would be fair to give them credit for never giving up, as well as the great contribution they got from the bench with a strong presence from the three point range: 6 triples that had a strong contrast with the Lakers’ bench that got none.

The Mavericks also did a great job in taking advantage of their franchise player German Dirk Nowitzki who put together 28 points and 14 rebounds. He wasn’t just the top scorer of the teams, but also starred one of the most discussed decisions of the game: Pau Gasol was called a foul on him that Laker’s No. 16 refused to have committed, and that Novitzki took advantage of to put the definite 94-96 from the free throw line.

That last free throw was the culmination of a 9-2 run in the last 3:32 of the game, run that made the come from behind victory possible for the Mavs, in what was the first postseason meeting against the Lakers since 1988.

This story will continue on Wednesday at the Staples Center where the Lakers will try to even the series prior to traveling to Dallas for games 3 and 4.