<font color="RoyalBlue"><font size="3"><div align="center">Dallas Mavericks (38-18) @ Los Angeles Lakers (28-28) Friday March 4th, 2005 - 10:30PM ET Tipoff (on FoxW, ESPN)</div></font></font> Projected Lakers Starters <font color="Indigo">PG - Chucky Atkins SG - Kobe Bryant SF - Caron Butler PF - Lamar Odom C - Chris Mihm</font> Projected Mavericks Starters PG - Jason Terry SG - Michael Finley SF - Josh Howard PF - Alan Henderson C - Dirk Nowitzki Mavericks lead the season series 1-0 Key Stat Lakers have lost a season high 4 games in a row. Key Match-Up Lamar Odom vs. Dirk Nowitzki This will be a great match-up between two agile big men. Normally either player presents a mis-match because of their ability to score off the dribble and take most bigs out on the perimeter and torch by them. Tonight Odom will have to make Dirk earn his points. Odom has to defend with his feet, instead of his hands to avoid early foul trouble. The Mavericks do not have any shotblockers, so Odom will have the opportunity to drive to the basket without having to worry about a big man rotating over. Odom needs to attack Nowitzki and put the pressure on him to play defense and avoid fouls. Last year with the Heat, Odom was in a similar situation, but he was able to lead the Heat on a streak and get them into the playoffs. This is a great opportunity for him to assert himself and help shoulder some of the load off of Kobe. If Odom and Kobe can find away to both be effective tonight, it should carry over to the rest of the team and give the Lakers a great chance at winning this game. Everyone is expecting the Mavs to make short work of the Lakers, but the Lakers have shown heart this season and I expect them to compete tonight. Lakers' Keys to the Game - Limit Turnovers - Control Tempo - Defense Must Show up Tonight - Hold the Mavs to under 100 points Mavericks' Keys to the Game - Work the ball inside early, to establish an inside/out attack - Work the pick and roll - Protect against Lakers going for offensive rebounds Prediction It's crunch time for the Lakers tonight. They are home after a disasterous road trip against the Atlantic Division. The Lakers had a chance to win all three road games, but 4th quarter miscues cost them and has resulted in a season high 4 game losing streak. To make matters worse, the Nuggets have won 5 straight and have tied the Lakers for the 8th spot in the West. The Lakers will have all the pressure on them tonight and so far they've cracked in the clutch. The Lakers will struggle tonight, because the Mavs will run pick and roll with Dirk & Terry, or Dirk & Finley. The Celtics killed the Lakers with the pick and roll at Boston and I expect more of the same tonight. Jason Terry had a field day against Atkins in the first match-up and the Mavs forced the Lakers into an up and down shoot out. The Lakers cannot out shoot the Mavs, but the Lakers don't have the discipline to manage tempo. With both Atkins and Kobe looking to attack with the basketball, the Lakers play right into the Mavs style of basketball. The Mavs have also improved defensively this year, and are doing a better job of rebounding. Teams used to be able to stay in the game by taking advantage of the Mavs weak defensive rebounding, but with Henderson and Howard shoring up the defense it's harder to get easy looks. The Mavs have the edge in the starting lineup and a tremendous edge off the bench. The Mavs' bench could probably give the Lakers' starters a run for their money. A lineup of Van Horn, Stackhouse, Daniels, Armstrong, and Bradley will completely dominate the bench battle tonight. The only bright spot all season off the bench has been Jumaine Jones, but other than JJ, the bench has been disgustingly inconsistent for the Lakers. Despite everything going against the Lakers I'm going to predict them winning tonight. The Lakers don't want to fall below .500 and my gut tells me they pull off the big upset tonight. The Mavs have always struggled in the Staple Center, and I expect a let down from them tonight. Lakers win 110-103. Laker Quote of the Day <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"It's never panic time," forward Lamar Odom said. "We've been in this situation before where you've got to win, whether it's eighth grade, fifth-grade basketball, high school, college, and now professional. We've got to put a streak of wins together. How we're going to do that is playing basketball the right way."</div>
