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:
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.
