Gameday Pr0phile - Dallas

Los Angeles Lakers

(24-23, 3rd Pacific)

Dallas Mavericks

(37-10, 1st-tie Southwest)

Lakers Team Stats
Offense 98.6 ppg, 20.1 apg, 42.6 rpg
Defense 97.3 ppg, 20.7 apg, 40.9 rpg

Mavericks Team Stats
Offense 99.7 ppg, 17.8 apg, 42.9 rpg
Defense 93.3 ppg, 17.1 apg, 39.5 rpg

Season Series
Lakers lead the series, 2-0.
Last Meeting:

Kobe defeated the Mavs with an ungodly 62 points
through 3 quarters.

image courtesy Reuters / Danny Moloshok

Top 6 Lakers

PG Smush Parker 11.5 points, 3.1 assists, 3.1 rebounds
SG Sasha Vujacic 4.1 points, 1.7 assists, 2.0 rebounds
SF Kobe Bryant 35.7 points, 4.3 assists, 5.6 rebounds
PF Brian Cook 6.9 points, 0.9 assists, 3.0 rebounds
C Kwame Brown 6.0 points, 0.9 assists, 6.0 rebounds
6th Luke Walton 4.4 points, 2.6 assists, 3.5 rebounds

Top 6 Mavs
PG Jason Terry 16.6 points, 3.7 assists, 1.8 rebounds
SG Adrian Griffin 4.4 points, 1.7 assists, 4.9 rebounds
SF Josh Howard 16.0 points, 2.0 assists, 6.9 rebounds
PF Dirk Diggler 25.4 points, 2.6 assists, 8.5 rebounds
C DeSagana Diop 2.1 points, 0.3 assists, 4.8 rebounds
6th Stack 13.1 points, 2.7 assists, 2.3 rebounds

Key Matchup: Kobe vs. Kobe
There’s seemingly only one player who sees more than ten minutes per game who for the Lakers who can make a difference…and that’s Kobe Bryant. Can he get his teammates involved? I hope not. They are not good, plain and simple. That wouldn’t be horrible if they weren’t playing atrociously on top of it. The fact remains that they are playing horribly and there are injuries out the wazzoo.

Kobe doesn’t have to score 81 or 62 through 3 for the Lakers to win, but he does have to have a great game because I don’t see anyone stepping up. On the other side of the ball, Dallas has been hot, not just of late, but they’re 27 games over .500 on the season. They’re playing exceptionally good ball…but they’ve shown time and again that Kobe can destroy them. It’s all on Bryant’s shoulders, just like he likes it.

Featured Peformers
Kobe Bryant 51 points, 3 assists, 7 rebounds
Dirk Diggler 26 points, 3 assists, 11 rebounds

Outlook
LA has a better chance of winning this game than they would against most other teams. Kobe is going to be a monster. The rest falls to his teammates. If they can even be competent (something they’ve not been consistently in a long time), LA will win.

Kwame and Bynum should be able to punish Diop and Dampier. Terry and Dirk will probably punish Smush and Cook. Dallas has a far, far deeper bench…but LA has Kobe, LA’s savior. It’s time to add to your legacy, Kobe.

Lakers 105
Dallas 102