Dreadful. Humiliating. Embarrassing.

Those are the first three words of a “Rated G” variety that comes to mind after watching the Dallas Mavericks sweep the FORMER, two-time NBA Champion Lakers into rebuilding mode.

All the other words spilling from my mouth would have made George Carlin proud.

The Dreadful

Let’s start with the poor defensive rotation. I’ve heard Stu Lantz say numerous times that “no player can travel faster than the ball.” Well, the Mavs were passing the ball around like they were playing a game of hot potato, while the old and slow moving Laker defense just couldn’t keep up. It appeared no matter where the Laker defenders set their feet defensively, their feet found a way to end up in buckets of cement.

I could understand giving up an open three every now and then, but to see Jason Terry spot up numerous times and take an open shot without a Laker within a country mile was frustratingly painful to watch.

The Mavs were on fire from beyond the arc and the Lakers had no answers. To see this team make it to three consecutive finals, win the last two and not have any answers for defending the pick and roll or the three point shot is going to leave many Laker fans wondering WTF happened.

The Humiliating

After Jason Terry hit his, I don’t know, 37th 3 in a row, the Lakers, at least some of them, quit. Some Lakers who never “been there before” wilted under the pressure. Steve Blake and Matt Barnes, the two Laker signings that fans were most excited over, never made their mark on the team or provided the level of play the Lakers front office was expecting.

Ultimately, with Jason Terry’s record tying performance and the Mavs on the whole going 20 of 32 from beyond the arc, the Lakers were not merely eliminated, they were pulverized by the Mavs in a 36 point rout.

Sadly, the game was over at halftime. It turned out that Friday night was in fact, “Kobe’s Last Stand”, as the Lakers acquiesced to their fate and dialed up Nick Van Exel in search of the best travel deals to Cancun.

The Embarrassing

Bynum and Odom. Let’s get Lamar out of the way. His hockey check on Dirk Nowitzki was out of line, and if this was a regular season game or a run of the mill competitive playoff game, the refs probably wouldn’t have ejected him. But given the score, given that LO hit Dirk and given that it was a forearm to the ribs as opposed to something that may have occurred accidently during the course of a play, the zebras had little choice.

Now let’s talk about Bynum. There were things that I liked from #17 during games 2 and 3. He played with intensity. He was aggressive. He was demonstrative on the court. For one of the few times ever it seemed like he gave a damn and he wanted some responsibility for how well the team performs. He elevated his game high enough to compete with Pau as the preferred second option.

And he threw it all away with a cheap shot. And it was not only cheap, it was against the littlest player in the series, JJ Barea. All 6’0″, 175 lbs of him was knocked to the floor when he drove to the basket, leaped for a layup and was unceremoniously knocked to the floor when his ribs met Andrew Bynum’s skillfully placed forearm.

Quick tale of the tape: We’ve already established Barea as 6’0″ ft tall and 175 lbs (after a full meal). Andrew Bynum has  13 inches and 110 lbs on him. Between Barea’s ribs and Bynum forearm, who do you think won the matchup? Right, Bynum’s forearm and he was immediately ejected.

And then he took of his jersey as he left the court.

There are several things that bothered me about this.

First, it reminded me of Dennis Rodman and Ron Artest circa 2004. No further explanation required.

Second, it proves to me that he quit. He couldn’t get off the floor fast enough. I think there was a bar of soap waiting for him at the tunnel. He must of had a full lather on by the time he reached the locker room.

If you are going to do something like that go all the way. Get in someone’s grill. It just proves that there was no purpose, nothing strategic about his foul. If you do that, be a freakin’ man about it. Don’t sprint off the court as if you are going to meet Rhianna after the game for a night cap.

Lastly, it was classless. When #$%& doesn’t go his way, when things do not turn out the way he wants to, he can’t control his emotions. Sure, he is only 23, but he’s been in the league for SIX, yes SIX years now.  There is no need to act like a little bitch in front of everyone.

Win with class, lose with dignity. Apparently this fool can’t do either.

As a Laker fan I was embarrassed to see the team lose the crown with two of its pivotal players getting ejected for flagrant fouls. I was also angry that Kobe and Fisher didn’t immediately step in and tell Bynum that his hit wasn’t called for.

By this time the Lakers gave up. They tapped out. Nothing from the bench, nothing from the co-captains, nothing from Phil as he was already on his way to Montana.

What’s Next?

Phil is gone. It’s been a great run, but the run with this team is over. Now the Lakers have to hope that there are teams in the league that are willing to help them rebuild. He will go down as the G.O.A.T. and it is a shame that his career had to end in such a blowout. His career will not be remembered for the result of this one game, but the 11 teams that he coached to championships, his unique way to motivate his players and manage large egos to fit into his system and his keen ability to find himself at the right place at the right time.

There are reports that Brian Shaw is the favorite to take over for PJ next year. That may be true, but I have a feeling that after the way this season ended, that it is possible that the Lakers may look to go in an entirely different direction to try and inject some new life, new blood and new philosophies into the Laker style of play.

Will Lamar, Bynum and Pau be back? These three guys are the only tradable assets the Lakers own. I think the Lakers SHOULD trade Bynum. One more misstep and his trade value becomes nil. Why run the risk? This is a guard driven league and the Lakers need to acquire someone who is dynamic with the ball at the point.

Teams will always be interested in Lamar’s versatility, but not his aloof nature. There are teams out there who would love to have LO as an asset on the bench and with him winning the 6th man of the year award the Lakers may get ninety cents on the dollar for him.

And as for Pau,…he’s a mystery. Are his skills diminishing? Will he ever be the 2008-2010 Pau or is this as good as it is going to get? I’d rather trade someone too early than too late, so if there are viable offers out there the Lakers have to consider unloading him.

It is likely that the next few years will be rough for Laker fans as we watch other franchises pick up the Larry O’Brien Trophy. As long as Dr. Buss is running the ship, we should feel confident and hopeful that our team will be back sooner than later.

I’ve been thinking over the last few days about what to expect from the Lakers tonight. And here is what I think:

1. Kobe will shoot the ball 30+ times. Whether or not he is still capable of single-handily winning a game remains to be seen. I do not doubt for a second that he still has the will to try. Can his body keep up with his mind and determination? We will see. Kobe will, at the very least, start out assertive. Let’s hope there is still fight in the other Lakers. If not, even if the Lakers win tonight the season will soon be over.

2. Bench changes. I expect to see Luke Walton playing some minutes tonight. Luke is not flashy, he doesn’t score much, but Phil trusts Luke to move the ball on offense and the Laker offense has been rather stagnant in the first two games of the series. Will Phil start Luke? I doubt it. Phil is not that bold. I would expect him to start Lamar and play all three bigs at the same time. Let’s hope the Laker length can disrupt the Dallas offense and create 2nd chance opportunities for the team while on offense.

Finally, this may be Kobe’s last stand.

Think about it for a moment. If he is unable to resuscitate this Laker run, with the pending NBA lockout on the horizon, we may not see Kobe and this version of the Lakers receive an opportunity to make a run for another title.

We certainly will not see the same Kobe. If the NBA loses the 2011-2012 season, Kobe will not play a NBA game until he is 34. 36 in NBA years. He would no longer be considered in his prime and in the twilight of his magnificent career.

Phil will be gone. Pau will be 32, and 32 for a big man is the start of the downside of his career. While Pau does not depend upon brute force like Shaq, he does depend upon quick footwork and precise moves to create space and get to the basket. He’s not going to move as well two years from now and who knows, this playoff season may be the first sign of the eroding of his talents.

What I am saying is that this could very well be the Lakers last hurrah. And if Kobe is looking to get his 6th title, he may have to do it by carrying 50% of the load.

Okay. I’ve said for a while to wait for me to say it is time to panic…

WELL NOW IS THE TIME TO PANIC.

Everyone except Kobe and Andrew Bynum seemed like they were playing a critical playoff game.

Blake, Brown, Barnes, Artest and Fisher all looked out of sorts.

And what to make of Pau? There has to be something physically wrong with him because he looks completely out of sorts.

I am ALMOST resigned to the fact that the Lakers are going to lose this series.

But I expect Kobe to take the bull by the horns on Friday. If Kobe doesn’t shoot the ball 30+ times I will be shocked. He’s going to try (and rightfully so) and carry this team back from the abyss.

And truthfully, this team is a lot closer to the abyss than it is to the surface.

I’d expect to see a little more Luke Walton on Friday. The Laker offense has been stagnant most of the first two games and PJ likes to lean on him to get the ball moving and hopefully create some easy opportunities for Pau and Kobe.

It would be a travesty if the Laker are sent “Gone Fishing” by the TNT crew in the Western Conference Semifinals.

If they lose Friday and/or Sunday, that just may be their fate.

I am starting this post early in the third quarter. I figure that I want to give myself a jump start on this post and if the Lakers win, then I will be able go to bed pretty quickly after the game because I’ll be done with this.

But if they lose, it’s going to be a long night.

Here is what I like so far:
1. Andrew Bynum. He’s playing like a big and is dominating the Lakers offensive paint.
2. Kobe. He’s bringing the effort we are accustomed to seeing out of him tonight.

Here is what I don’t like:
1. Pau. Does this guy know he has two NBA championships on his resume? I see someone who is indecisive, lost defensively and, dare I say, soft when finishing at the rim.
2. Ron Ron. I am cringing when he is shooting an open shot. It’s feelng like last year again.
3. The bench. Blake seems scared to take a shot (he just missed two open 3′s as I type this up). Barnes appears lost. Shannon Brown has made some boneheaded mistakes. Can B-Shaw suit up and help this second unit?

Steve Blake with a bad pass. Looks like Kobe will have play the entire 4th quarter.

The Lakers really know how to get my blood pressure up.

The game was unfolding exactly that I expected.

The Mavs and the Lakers would go back and forth early on. Then as the game continued, the Lakers would extend a lead attributable to stupid mistakes by the Mavs and championship poise by the Lakers.

Then in the 3rd quarter, after significant halftime adjustments, the Lakers would put the game out of reach.

And it was looking that way for a while. The Lakers went up 16 on a Kobe Bryant 3 pointer after 3 straight turnovers by the Mavs to open the 2nd half.

So if this was the Lakers being Dr. Jekyll, they suddenly turned into Mr. Hyde.

The Mavs, unlikely previous teams, finds a way to bounce back and get within striking distance.

It is important to note that the Lakers did not relinquish the lead until the final moments. You can see the game unfolding with several minutes left that it was going to be one of those games when the Mavs would be close but never get over the hump and retake the lead.

And it surely seemed that way. And then Lakers crumbled in the final moments.
A couple turnovers and a stupid foul does them in.

The Mavs tried not to win the game. Dirk made a free throw that touched every millimeter of rim. But the Mavs’ defense was tough down the stretch and they actually won a game that they normally lose.

As a Laker fan, I could tell in the last few minutes that the Lakers were going to find a way to screw it up. This game should not have been this close.

This game was all about the two big men who came up small for the Lakers. Don’t look at Pau’s stats, look at how he played. He played like a #3 and not a #2. And Bynum was missing shots that he should make.

So are we going to see a Laker team that puts a complete performance together on Wednesday? Based upon previous performances, the answer would be yes.
But if you are the Mavs the pressure is off. They won a game and they are certainly capable of taking a second one. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Mavs come out strong in Game 2.

I’m hoping that big men play with some authority. They should not get pushed around or owned by Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood.

And if the Laker bigs get pushed around by the Mavs, I just may have a meltdown.

Okay.

Six games is what it took. Two games longer than WHAT IT SHOULD HAVE taken, but two games none the less.

So be it. Time to move on. Time to focus on the next foe. The next obstacle. The next force that is going to test the two-time defending champs to…

wait a minute.

The Lakers get the Mavs next? Please.

I thought the Lakers were going to get a serious opponent? I don’t take the Mavs seriously, but I am sure the Lakers will. We’ve seen this before. The defending champs come out of the gate slow, but after the first turn they’ve hit their stride.

Every year it is the same thing with the Mavs. They are different. They are tougher. They are not soft. They are defense oriented. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

SOS, different year.

I’m still not buying.

I’m calling a Laker sweep.

“But you are a Laker fan.” Yes, yes I am. I am a Laker fan but I know phonies when I see it and the Mavs are phonies. I don’t care what tattooed fool they have in the post. It doesn’t matter. The Lakers own the Mavs. Kobe owns the Mavs.

And if you are dumb enough to fall for the Dallas Maverick line of BS you hear again and again every single playoff season then may I interest you these magic beans?

Now that’s more like it.

After a typically lethargic 1st quarter, the Lakers hit their stride at the beginning of the 2nd quarter while CP3 sat on the bench and watched the Lakers bench provide the spark the team needed; a 10-0 run that got the Lakers back in the game and was then punctuated in a way none of us thought was possible.

Let’s be real, Kobe doesn’t have young legs. We haven’t seen have a memorable jam in years. The last Kobe jam, that I recall, that made stand up out of my chair was back in the Garden a few years back, driving baseline and throwing down a reverse jam against a couple of hapless Knicks.

And then Kobe destroyed Emeka Okafor. I texted a buddy that “Kobe just murdered Okafur.” He did. Okafur is known throughout the league for being a shot blocker. He’s not scared to go up and run the risk of being on your next poster and he’ll be Kobe’s.

Kobe finished up an emphatic left-handed jam later in the game.

Charles Barkley was right at halftime, Kobe wasn’t hurt. He wasn’t on his “death bed” as CB put it. He may have been sore, but the ran with it as if he was on the verge of amputation and Kobe milked it. Greg Anthony said he felt “bamboozled.” I wonder what the Hornets felt like?

This series SHOULD end in game 6 but with these Lakers you never know.

The three biggest positives I took out of this game are:

1. The play of the bench. They didn’t shoot well, but they had 18 total rebounds, 6 dimes and 3 steals. They were active defensively and 3 of the 4 players off the bench ended up with double digits on the positive side of +/-.
2. Twin tower domination. It was nice to have Pau Gasol sighting (or maybe that was Marc?). Pau played his game. He didn’t get impatient and utilized his skills to get into the flow of the game. And ‘Drew was manly. He patrolled the paint and made smart decisions on the offensive end.
3. The overall aggressiveness on the defensive end. There were a few open 3′s (can someone get a hand in Ariza’s face for his spot up 3?), but the Lakers clogged the paint and made it difficult forced the Hornets to play more from the perimeter.

I hope Laker mojo makes the trip to New Orleans, I sure as hell do not want to see a game 7.

I’ve been wondering what to make of Pau’s play this series. There are plenty of people that throw the “s” word around with him and that is the obvious place to start with his recent play.

I don’t think it’s that.

When people throw the “s” word around with Pau it is generally referring to Pau’s play from a physical standpoint. But he’s banging around, he’s trying to push Landry down low but that is not Pau’s game. That’s not his style.

If Pau is being “s”, it’s mentally, not physically.

Pau’s a smart dude. Dude could be a doctor if he wanted, but he’s not playing like one of the smartest and most skilled big-men in the NBA. He’s playing into Landry’s hands. He’s playing Landry’s game.

The problem is not Pau being “s”, it’s comfort.

Pau just doesn’t look comfortable out there at the moment. He’s not able to take the ball in the post, pivot, square up against the defender and either drive past him or hit the mid-range jump shot. He’s not getting the time needed to let his skills take over.

Pau needs to stop backing Landry as if he has the ass the size of Charles Barkley. He doesn’t.

He needs to stop playing Landry’s game and get Landry to play his. And it is up to the Laker coaching staff to find a way to create more space for Pau that allows him to use his biggest asset, his skills. I hope to see more iso plays for Pau in Game 5, letting the triangle take a break to let Pau do his thing.

I don’t know if Pau is going to find his footing in the next few games or even this playoff season. I hope he does.

Because if he doesn’t I am going to be one ticked-off and disappointed Laker fan.

Well, I think Bynum is healthy.

He looked confident tonight. And for the first time, I noticed some emotion out of Bynum after rolling in a basket while being fouled.

The bench played better this evening. Odom and Barnes played well.

The concern right now, if there is one, is with Pau. You have to figure he will get it together at some point. He’ll find confidence in shot and he will play the level Laker fans expect him to.

This series should end in three more games. The Lakers threw everything defensively, including the kitchen sink, at CP3 to get him off his game. And frankly, other than two buzzer beating 3′s, the Laker defense made the adjustments to correct what went wrong in game 1.

I am not concerned about Kobe’s lack of scoring in this game. He was focused on defending CP3 and playing him physically. I am sure in New Orleans he will be more assertive offensively.

But it was nice to see the bench get it together. Blake looked a little sluggish returning from the chicken pox, but it was good to see him get into the flow of the game and find his way.

If this series goes any more than 5 games I’ll be shocked.

For months I told you not to worry.

Not to be concrerned.

Come June, the Lakers will be playing for the championship and that is all that matters.

Then last night happened.

As he has done a gazillion times before, Andrew Bynum ran to the other side of the court. But bizarrely, in the Andrew Bynum injury-prone way, he steps on a foot as he is running and hyper-extend’s his right knee.

Typically, this happens when jumping but not for “Glass Joe”, err Andrew Bynum.

This happens all to often. I have said, not here but amongst friends, that the Lakers cannot trust Bynum. After this run ends, and if Bynum is out for an extended period of time it may end sooner than you and I hoped, the Lakers cannot build their future around this guy.

This is a guard driven league. The Lakers will need to figure out a way to trade Bynum and get some help in the backcourt when Kobe calls it quits.

Let’s hope that Bynum is back and ready to go for the second round and beyond or we will be in for a huge disappointment.