Defending champions Los Angeles Lakers on the verge of elimination - NBA Play-offs Update
On Friday night, Dallas Mavericks prevailed for the third successive time against the two-time defending champions, Los Angeles Lakers, at the American Airlines Centre, Dallas.
The Lakers are now almost on the brink of elimination from the second-round semi-finals of the Western Conference. To stay alive in the series, the team will have to create history.
Renewed courage from the Mavericks has crushed the dream of the Lakers, to win their third straight National Basketball Association (NBA) title. Dallas has stunned everyone, with their outstanding performance in the second-round of the 2011 Play-offs.
The Lakers are 0-3 for the very first time, under the coaching of Phil Jackson.
A frustrated Jackson, said, “Well we're disappointed. We felt like Games 1 and 3 we controlled the pace of the game, but just couldn't finish the game. They're better at finishing the games out than we were, so that's a big disappointment to us. But we still
believe we're going to win the next game, and we'll go from there... They deserved to win and we didn't.”
The Lakers were in command of game-3 until they blew away their eight-point lead in the final six minutes of the fourth quarter, as the furious Mavs made a late surge that rattled the Lakers.
Los Angeles centre, Andrew Bynum, snapped his series slump by scoring 21 points and clutching ten re-bounds in the game, but he was really frustrated with the loss and expressed his aggravation too.
Bynum, said, “It's tough man. We played hard and we just gave it away again at the end; up seven with eight minutes to go.”
In the first two games, Dallas outplayed the Lakers by at least six points in each of the fourth quarters. The team improved their previous record by outscoring Los Angeles 32-20, in the final frame of the third game.
A visibly upset Lamar Odom after the game, said, “Sometimes it's just hard for me to understand how we find ourselves in a game like that and we don't know how to use each other's strengths. We've been through it so many times, but we're so stubborn with
each other, and it caught up to us...”
Ron Artest’s suspension was another issue which hurt the Lakers pretty badly. He was a consistent player for the defending champions, as he started all games in the regular-season.
With his exclusion, the already struggling Lakers had to come-up with not just a new starting line-up, but also had to increase the minutes of their reserves, which were already out of form.
So far, all 98 teams that had gone down 3-0 in the seven game series have failed to come up again. Los Angeles have a very thin chance of defying the odds, but still the Mavs are not over- confident with their current position and are considering game-4,
as a pivotal match.
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