Lakers Have Mavericks Off Balance

In the moments before the Lakers beat the Dallas Mavericks twice in less than a week, it was Nick Van Exel, the Mavericks’ irascible guard, who determined that the best teams in the NBA no longer wilted at the sight of the bloated Lakers.

It would seem there are two possible explanations for the Mavericks’ persistent failures against the Lakers: Van Exel was wrong or the Mavericks are not among the league’s elite. The Lakers would leave it to Van Exel to choose, particularly if the two teams meet in the playoffs in 10 days.

With neither Shaquille O’Neal nor Kobe Bryant among their leading scorers, the Lakers defeated the Mavericks, 108-99, Tuesday night at Staples Center. The Mavericks have lost 25 consecutive games to the Lakers in Los Angeles, a streak that covers 13 years and many fourth quarters like Tuesday’s.

“A lot of times it’s better not to wake a sleeping dog, so they say,” said Rick Fox, among four players who outscored their superstar teammates. “A lot of people have been yapping.

“Nothing’s been played. Nothing’s been won. So it’s all been premature. We can’t prevent people from having opinions. But, the opinions have sometimes been quite laughable.”

While the Lakers have struggled against Sacramento (1-2) and San Antonio (0-4), the Mavericks have been another series altogether. They have won three of four games, one in Dallas, all three with hard-charging, aggressive fourth quarters, one, memorably, from 27 points back.

The Mavericks played without Michael Finley, did a credible job of shutting down O’Neal (14 points, 10 rebounds) and Bryant (14 points, eight rebounds), and were buried by Devean George (21 points), Robert Horry (17 points, 10 rebounds) and Fox and Derek Fisher (16 each).

It was the first time someone other than Bryant or O’Neal led the Lakers in scoring since Jan. 12, 2002, when Fisher scored 28 points in an overtime loss in Chicago.

The Mavericks have led the Midwest Division from opening night, and on Tuesday fell into a first-place tie with the idle Spurs. The Lakers, who have won five consecutive games to improve to 47-31, remained in sixth place. From there they’d play the team that finishes second in the Midwest.

“You know what, they played incredible tonight,” Bryant said of the supporting guys. “I’m really, really happy about this win.

“They played very good defense on me, but I haven’t been looking to put the ball in the hole. If we play them in the playoffs and I need to put the ball in the hole, I feel very confident I will.”

The game reached the fourth quarter, the Laker lead was only one and the Mavericks faded, missed the jump shots that fell in the first three quarters, arrived second at loose balls, hit every wet spot on the floor. George scored 11 points in the final quarter, the Lakers ran off 13 of 17 points, led by 10 four minutes in, and then 15 with two minutes remaining.

Maverick Coach Don Nelson had run double-teams at O’Neal and Bryant (Phil Jackson called O’Neal, in Nelson’s defense, “like the Queen Bee in the hive”), and then watched the other Lakers step into three-pointers. The Lakers made 10 of 21 from the arc. Fox was three for five in the first quarter alone.

“It’s going to take a lot more than crying and whining by underachieving big men to beat us,” O’Neal said.

Asked for specifics, O’Neal said, “All of them. They all stink.”

Well into the second quarter, Bryant sat on the bench, towels over his shoulders and knees, to O’Neal’s right. With 5:07 left, he stood to return to the game, having taken no shots, having missed his only two free throws, having one rebound and two turnovers.

With 3:49 remaining in the first half, Bryant made a free throw, his first point of the game, and then another, and the score was tied, 38-38.

Dallas owner Mark Cuban attended the Board of Governors meetings in New York and so skipped the chance to ride his buddy Shaq about his free-throw shooting. The crowd instead booed Van Exel, the former Laker who’d declared the Lakers done.

On the floor, Van Exel defends neither O’Neal nor Bryant, so he perhaps speaks for himself, as no Maverick teammates rushed to second his opinion. In fact, after Van Exel exposed the Lakers for a national radio audience, he declined follow-up questions posed by print reporters, suggesting he hoped the whole thing might go away.

“Our game plan was good,” Van Exel insisted. “We have to have more ball movement and I have to make shots. If we do that, we’ll be fine.”

There were boos, and O’Neal said he only talked about “important” players, and, oh, everybody has something to say about the Lakers.

“When the playoffs come, they are going to have the memory of what we’ve done and the groups we used,” Jackson said. “Obviously, the key is that we feel we can win on their court. We have had success there and they haven’t here.”