Finally getting four quarters of good basketball from an opponent, the Lakers raised their collective game enough in the second half to emerge with an impressive W in a hostile American Airlines Arena in Dallas.
The best stretch of the game came just after an explosive Gerald Green dunk that put the Mavs up 81-76 at the start of the fourth, when a 7-0 run featuring a Sasha Vujacic three, Lamar Odom finish in the lane and Trevor Ariza two-handed flush from the baseline gave L.A. a lead it would not concede. Nine points in the next two minutes from Kobe Bryant, some of which were of the truly special variety, helped build an eight-point Lakers lead, and a collectively strong defensive effort that limited Dallas to 20 fourth-quarter points sealed the deal.
A few key stats:
L.A. held Dallas to 39 points in the second half after allowing 60 in the first half.
Pau Gasol was a key factor in Dirk Nowitzki’s 5-for-17 shooting night, and the Spaniard put up a 22 and 11 double-double in return.
Trevor Ariza’s block of a potential game-tying Jerry Stackhouse three in the corner made me think of Hakim Warrick’s National Championship sealing swat against Kansas. He finished with 13 points, six boards, three steals, a block and a dime in a very impressive 28 minutes.
Jason Kidd tallied the 101st triple-double of his career behind 16 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, not to mention four steals. It’s a testament to how great the game was that the fans really had no idea when Kidd’s 10th assist came with only 13 seconds left on the clock. He still trails Magic Johnson (138) and Oscar Robertson (181) for the all-time record.
Kobe Bryant finished with a game-high 27 points, including that ridiculous fourth-quarter stretch.
L.A. was outrebounded for the first time this season, 54-58, but forced 22 Dallas turnovers to make up for it.
The last time L.A. started a season 6-0 was in 2001-02, the last time the Lakers won the NBA championship.
Jackson coached his 1,400th game, becoming only the 13th coach in NBA history to do so. More impressively, he boasts the best win percentage in history, winning 70.1 percent of his games (982-418).
Finally, here’s what Jackson had to say after the contest:
Phil Jackson Post-Game [4:25m]:
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I’ll have to trust you to pull out Jackson’s best points yourself, because if I don’t get off the bus and onto the plane in the next two minutes, Mychal Thompson and Stu Lantz are likely to knock me around, and that doesn’t sound like a good idea.
