Nellie:"I thought we could beat them."

[Nash13]

Lakers' failures no surprise to Nelson

By Jim Reeves

Star-Telegram Staff Writer


It's the age-old question: If a dynasty falls in Detroit, does it still make a sound?

The answer, of course, is a resounding, "You bloody well better believe it."

This isn't just a sapling being uprooted by a little breeze. This is a giant redwood crashing to the ground.

The demise of the Lakers' dynasty will change the balance of power in the NBA, especially in the West.

"Absolutely," Mavs coach Don Nelson said Monday as the NBA took a deep breath for what might be the Lakers' final gasp tonight in Motown. "But I had the Pistons the whole way anyway."

That's the Nellie genius for you. He knew the empire was teetering, even while most of the rest of the sporting world sat back to watch Shaq, Kobe and the Zen Master win their fourth NBA ring in five years.

Now the Lakers find themselves in a 3-1 hole and battling history. In 58 years of NBA playoffs, no team has ever recovered from a 3-1 deficit in the Finals.

Yet, if any team can do it, it might be the Lakers. Not, however, the way we've seen them play in this series against Detroit. Not this time.

Gary Payton has been pathetic. Karl Malone has been hurt and turning grayer in front of our very eyes.

More important, Kobe Bryant hasn't been the Kobe-Wan. Maybe coach Phil Jackson should send him back to that courtroom in Eagle, Colo., for a quick breather, since he always seems inspired when he gets back on the court afterward.

No, the only Laker who seems like himself at all is Shaq, and even he is beginning to show his age.

The dynasty is dying as we watch. Payton and Malone will be gone after this year. So will Kobe, likely to flee via free agency, leaving his feud with Shaq behind.

That doesn't mean the Lakers won't still be a force, but not like they have been for the last five years.

"Shaq and anybody ain't bad," Nellie pointed out.

But Nellie could see the Lakers' problems brewing all season.

"I just thought the Lakers were going to get beat this year," he said. "They just weren't right all year. Something's missing.

"I told everybody that asked I thought the Pistons would win. In fact, I thought the Lakers would get beat before they even got to the Finals. I thought Sacramento would beat them."

But the Lakers didn't get matched up against the Kings, catching the Timberwolves instead.

"They got lucky playing Minnesota," Nellie said. "[The Timberwolves] aren't ready to beat the Lakers yet.

"I thought we could beat them. Everybody thought we wanted to duck the Lakers, but I thought we could take them."

Now he tells us.

And maybe the Mavs could have. Certainly, this Lakers team looks very, very vulnerable at the moment.

They still talk brave, but win three straight games against an inspired Pistons team smelling blood? Highly unlikely.

Not only that, but the sniping from within continues. Shaq scored 36 points and had 20 rebounds Sunday, but the Lakers still lost 88-80, and there were those who wondered afterward why Kobe was flinging up 25 off-balance shots when he should have been getting the ball inside to Shaq for almost automatic dunks.

"Shaq should have had 50," Lakers forward Rick Fox told reporters after Sunday's game. "And that would have been the difference.

"This was going to be his game. It was clear right away, we just had to get him the ball."

Asked afterward if he was disappointed that that didn't happen more often, Shaq was blunt.

"Of course I was," he said.

The Lakers have also faced criticism from inside the organization. Over the weekend, part-owner Magic Johnson ripped the team for its uninspired play, and in particular called out Payton for being outplayed by Chauncey Billups and Malone for getting into it with a Pistons fan.

"Un-Laker-like," Magic said with disgust.

On Saturday, the five players -- including Shaq, Kobe and Fox -- who had helped Jackson and the Lakers win three titles in the past four years, pinned the coach inside a men's restroom and all but begged him to bench Payton and Malone and start that championship five instead.

Jackson thought about it, but stayed with his same starting lineup Sunday, including the ice-cold Payton and the limping Malone.

The truth is, the Lakers don't match up well with Detroit, especially on the boards, even with Shaq doing everything he can.

The dynasty is crumbling. Bring on the Lakers.

"We could have beaten them," Nellie said confidently.

Now he tells us.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's a sad day when I agree with Nellie about anything. When Kobe hit that buzzer beater against Portland, I thought oh S***, because the Kings were the only team we could've faced in the first round to fully expose our defensive woes. I would've much rather faced the Lakers.

[jacktruth]

No way. The Mavs could not have beaten LA. Detroit is doing it with outstanding defense and rebounding, better even that San Antonio. Now, let's make a list of The Mavs biggest liabilities: defense, rebounding, . . . need I go on? The Mavs are in Jr. High defensively compared to SA and Detroit.

Nellie is drunk.

[sike]

"I thought we could beat them. Everybody thought we wanted to duck the Lakers, but I thought we could take them."

that is easy to say from your lazy boy in Maui....

[MavKikiNYC]

Riffity-riffity-riff-raff.
Chiffity-chiffity-chiff-chaff.
Riff-raff.
Chiff-chaff.
Let's give 'em the horse laugh.

PSSSSSSSSSS.

Sit down, bus driver!

[Usually Lurkin]

Originally posted by: jacktruth
Nellie is drunk.

yeah. probably


In the playoffs, dallas led the league in rebounds by 8 rbs a game (detroit was second)
During the regular season, Dallas was second in rebounding.

So I wouldn't exactly call it one of the Mavs biggest reliabilities.
They did get out rebounded by detroit both times they played during the season, and out rebounded by LA 2 out of 4 games. So maybe your point holds, jacktruth.

I'd say their biggest weaknesses are
+ Defense (this alone would mean the Lakers would beat them, and probably Detroit, too)
+ Mental Attitude (they may have won in LA, but it's hard to see Nellie and this team actually acting like they could beat LA in a series. They wouldn't have this problem against Det, though)
+ Lack of leadership (because of this, they'd probably crumble against either LA or detroit)

[ddh33]

You know, I thought the Mavs could have beaten the Lakers too. I wasn't scared. But I thought the Mavs would beat Sacramento too.

[LRB]

Originally posted by: jacktruth
No way. The Mavs could not have beaten LA. Detroit is doing it with outstanding defense and rebounding, better even that San Antonio. Now, let's make a list of The Mavs biggest liabilities: defense, rebounding, . . . need I go on? The Mavs are in Jr. High defensively compared to SA and Detroit.

Nellie is drunk.

I wouldn't put rebounding up as one of our biggest weaknesses anymore, but otherwise I'd agree with you on everything else. And I don't believe anything short of a Shaq injury would have allowed the Mavs to beat the Lakers in the playoffs.

[kg_veteran]

I read these comments from Nellie this morning and kind of laughed. It's kind of like taunting the bully when the teacher's standing there. You know good and well what the result would be if there was actually a fight.

[dalmations202]

Funny thing,

If Nellie would have stood up and said this during the season, and stopped playing underdog, maybe his team would have believed it.

[Hitman]

Originally posted by: dalmations202
Funny thing,

If Nellie would have stood up and said this during the season, and stopped playing underdog, maybe his team would have believed it.

That is exactly what I thought when I read this. The day before the opening game in LA, Nelson was talking about how the Lakers were by far the best team with their four hall of famers and that they were going to "Dominate the League."

[kg_veteran]

Good point. Nellie talks out of both sides, depending upon the situation.

[MavKikiNYC]

This is why Nellie gets zero respect.

Nellie may (or may not) have a good rapport with Dirk, Nash and Fin, but I can't imagine any significant FA looking at Nellie and seeing a star to which to hitch his wagon.

Nellie's team was not built to beat anything, least of all the Lakers. This kind of tired smack talk should really set off some alarm bells around here, because it strongly suggests that Nelson still thinks his ridiculous Walker-as-point-forward folly really wasn't such a bad idea after all; that the Mavericks really had a shot against the big boys with their all-offense, no-defense approach.

What this NBA Finals should be making clear to even Nellie's thick skull is that you face extremely long odds in the playoffs when you can't field a better-than-average defensive team.

I wish Cuban would just walk up and fire Nelson on the spot after hearing this kind of non-sense.

[chumdawg]

Just another case of the matchups causing problems. Dallas got their toughest matchup in the first round. The Lakers are getting theirs now. So it goes, so it goes.

It would be difficult to watch the way these Lakers have been playing and not believe that the Mavs would have had at least a hell of a chance to beat them. So Shaq would have got his. He's getting his against the Pistons, and it's not getting them anywhere. The Lakers are simply too shorthanded and out-of-sync to be the "dominant force" over anyone right now.

[Murphy3]

Do you honestly believe the Mavs faced their toughest matchup in the first round? Playing the Kings was pretty much the ideal situation for the Mavs. They just didn't take care of business.

[LRB]

Dallas got a Christmas gift come early when they got Sacramento as their 1st round opponent. Truth is that any of the top 4 teams in the West would have trashed the Mavs. The other 3 would probably have done it easier than the Kings.

[grndmstr_c]

It's not like Sacramento completely rocked the Mavs out of the playoffs. Let's not forget that the Mavs outscored them for the series. I don't know if the Mavs would have played well enough to beat LA had they met them in the playoffs, but I certainly think they had it in them to do so.

[chumdawg]

Originally posted by: Murphy3
Do you honestly believe the Mavs faced their toughest matchup in the first round? Playing the Kings was pretty much the ideal situation for the Mavs. They just didn't take care of business.

Do I honestly think that? Nah, not really. I'd like to believe it, though. It certainly *could* be the case. As GMC points out, the Mavs did outscore them in the series. I'm not ready to give them a pass on losing that series, saying the luck just went against them, because when the luck starts adding up it ceases to be just luck.

I think the Mavs would have handled Minnesota, though. And I think they would have had every chance against the Lakers. Against the Kings they didn't get the benefit of forcing the opponent into a style they don't like, which is a reason that maybe Sac wasn't such a good matchup for them after all.

If anything, I think it's clear (now that we have seen most of the Finals) that you could have covered all four top teams in the West with a hand towel. They were that close. The Lakers had a good bit of playoff luck just to get where they are.

And it's also dreadfully clear that the two conferences aren't now as mismatched as they once were.

[dude1394]

Nelile's smoking dope with willlie. Mavs were doomed with walker in the lineup.

[Simon2]

Haha! Exactly! Only now Nellie speaks positively. The whole year it was underdog ball.

Originally posted by: Hitman

That is exactly what I thought when I read this. The day before the opening game in LA, Nelson was talking about how the Lakers were by far the best team with their four hall of famers and that they were going to "Dominate the League."

[ddh33]

I'm in the group that thinks Sacramento is one of the worst matchups in the league for Dallas.

The Mavs are at their best when they play teams who don't shoot particularly well. The reason is because the Mavs have such a hard time closing out and guarding the perimeter.

Against most teams, shooting from the outside plays right into the Mavs hands. Against Sac, it plays right into theirs.

I thought San Antonio and LA were better matchups for Dallas for that reason.

[dirno2000]

The way we played in the Sac Series, there aren't many teams in the league that we could have beat. We couldn't score on the worse defensive team in the playoffs and we had nobody that could make a big shot. Not a recipe for playoff success.

[shaw-xx]

No. Mavs were struggling on both offensive and defensive ends all through the season. Without Detroit's D, Mavs' O would've lit up LA's and so we couldn't have defended them.