{"id":416550,"date":"2011-05-01T22:45:17","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T22:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/01\/down-16-mavs-beat-lakers-in-game-1-ap\/"},"modified":"2011-05-01T22:45:17","modified_gmt":"2011-05-01T22:45:17","slug":"down-16-mavs-beat-lakers-in-game-1-ap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/01\/down-16-mavs-beat-lakers-in-game-1-ap\/","title":{"rendered":"Down 16, Mavs beat Lakers in Game 1 (AP)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP)\u2014Although they had quite a combustible meeting last month, the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> and the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> claim the clubs\u2019 first playoff meeting in 23 years is too important for any thuggish, boorish behavior.<\/p>\n

Matt Barnes<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> has already been there, done that, and got the T-shirt.<\/p>\n

The Lakers forward\u2019s sportswear company is selling shirts generated out of the clubs\u2019 ejection-plagued meeting on March 31, but he realizes neither team can waste time shoving anybody around in the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not worried about anything that happened in the past,\u201d said Barnes, who was tossed from that game after a physical confrontation with Jason Terry<\/a>(notes)<\/a>,<\/span> who clobbered Steve Blake<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> with a hard foul. \u201cI\u2019m not carrying anything over. I\u2019m not trying to get into trouble or technical fouls or hurt my team in any way. We\u2019re going out there to try to win, play hard. That\u2019s the only chance any team has to beat us, to play harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Game 1 is Monday night at Staples Center.<\/p>\n

Dallas is the second-seeded Lakers\u2019 highest-seeded remaining road block to their fourth straight NBA finals, and the Mavericks have a combination of inside toughness and depth that could play well against Los Angeles\u2019 weaknesses. The Lakers rarely hesitate to get physical when necessary, and the New Orleans Hornets<\/a> reacted poorly to that postseason toughness in the first round\u2014a mistake the Mavs insist they won\u2019t make.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve just got to know what you\u2019re there for,\u201d Dallas big man Brendan Haywood<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> said. \u201cYou can\u2019t get suckered into any fake tough-guy stuff, or pushing and shoving. You\u2019ve got to go out there and do your job, stand your ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

The clubs\u2019 leaders have kept the peace so far\u2014even if it might be paining them. Phil Jackson and Mark Cuban are two of the best needlers in basketball, but the Lakers\u2019 11-time champion coach and the Mavericks\u2019 billionaire owner kept their barbs to themselves over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Jackson was full of praise for the Mavericks\u2019 consistent excellence and Cuban\u2019s role in it, even after a season in which Cuban referred to Jackson as Lakers executive Jeanie Buss\u2019 \u201cboy toy\u201d after Jackson made a crack about officiating.<\/p>\n

Even something that sounded like an insult was intended as a compliment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the best team money can buy, really,\u201d Jackson said after a summation of Dallas\u2019 strengths.<\/p>\n

Then, after a beat: \u201cSo are we.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson kept his focus on more important matters, such as the continued progress of Kobe Bryant\u2019s<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> sprained left ankle. Although Bryant insisted his latest injury is no problem, Jackson worries about the effect of inactivity on his leading scorer\u2019s sore joints.<\/p>\n

The Mavericks are worried about Bryant for different reasons\u2014including their lack of a defender who\u2019s likely to be able to guard Bryant by himself. After watching Bryant\u2019s performance on that sprain in the final two wins over the Hornets, Dallas isn\u2019t buying any suggestion Kobe isn\u2019t 100 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201d(Shawn Marion<\/a>(notes)<\/a>)<\/span> will be on him at times,\u201d Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. \u201cShawn is experienced. He\u2019s played him a lot. (DeShawn) Stevenson has played him a lot. (Jason) Kidd has played him. We\u2019ll have other guys ready. We\u2019ll have the kitchen sink ready. He\u2019s a great player and all that, but we\u2019re focused on our own game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dallas and Los Angeles both finished the regular season with 57 wins apiece. The Lakers won two of three meetings for the tiebreaker, and they kept that home-court advantage by the slimmest of margins, needing an overtime victory in their season finale at Sacramento.<\/p>\n

That game turned on a desperation 3-pointer by Bryant, but the two-time NBA finals MVP had already forgotten about it Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care about home court, I really don\u2019t,\u201d Bryant said. \u201cIt makes a lot of people nervous, but I don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Mavericks have disappointed their fans during most every postseason in the otherwise wildly successful Cuban era, the Lakers\u2019 title banners delineate the difference between the franchises. Bryant has declared that Los Angeles\u2019 back-to-back championships guarantee nothing this spring, while the Mavericks realize a win over the Lakers would be a tremendous breakthrough and a springboard to the success they\u2019ve never achieved.<\/p>\n

Lakers center Andrew Bynum<\/a>(notes)<\/a><\/span> thinks these Mavs are good enough to do it, and he gives much of the credit to Haywood and Tyson Chandler<\/a>(notes)<\/a>,<\/span> the 7-footers brought in to fix many of Dallas\u2019 historic playoff flaws.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just makes their team a little more defensive-oriented,\u201d Bynum said. \u201cYou can\u2019t win in the playoffs without defense, and picking up 7-footers is one way to address that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Bynum worked out in the summer with Chandler, the Compton product and NBA journeyman who has blossomed in Dallas. Unlike most Los Angeles kids, Chandler says he didn\u2019t dream of taking the court in that famed gold uniform.<\/p>\n

He dreamed of doing exactly what he\u2019ll try to do Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re in the backyard and you\u2019re putting up shots and you\u2019re doing the countdown, some players would imagine themselves being other players,\u201d Chandler recalled. \u201cI would imagine I was killing the Lakers, so hopefully my dreams come true. I guess that I didn\u2019t think I could be one, so the next-best thing was beating them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

More:
\nDown 16, Mavs beat Lakers in Game 1 (AP)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP)\u2014Although they had quite a combustible meeting last month, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks claim the clubs\u2019 first playoff meeting in 23 years is too important for any thuggish, boorish behavior. Matt Barnes (notes) has already been there, done that, and got the T-shirt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":416483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-416550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment"},"yoast_head":"\nDown 16, Mavs beat Lakers in Game 1 (AP) - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/01\/down-16-mavs-beat-lakers-in-game-1-ap\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Down 16, Mavs beat Lakers in Game 1 (AP) - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"EL SEGUNDO, Calif. 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