[Mavinator]

The Mavs play the lakers all, all wrong. I have faith in Nellie and he knows a whole hell of a lot more about basketball than I do, but here's the way I look at the lakers...

They have two main weaknesses, as far as I can tell: Shaq's free throw shooting, and transition defense. When we foul Shaq on every posession we lost the fastbreak, we slow down the game tremendously, we allow the laker geriatrics to rest, we force our foul-plagued big men to play with caution on the defensive end, and all in all we're thrown out of our rhythm. Plus we double team Shaq but only single-team kobe... kobe lights us up every time he plays us, particularly in the second half. I say we leave Shaq alone, let him get his points, double team kobe to force the ball out of his hands, play the roleplayers honestly, and run our asses off. All the lakers besides kobe have achy bones and hate having to run the floor. If we tucker out their undersized three-point shooting hatchetmen, Fox, Horry, Penberthy, George, etc., then I think we can take this game. The truth is, when Shaq does everything he can to hit his freethrows against Dallas, the Hack-a-Shaq just doesn't work for us any more...