What team can the Dallas Mavericks beat in the playoffs?
It’s not the Lakers. Quit laughing for just a second. Pretend that the answer to this question is not obvious. “Um….no one.” Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry both told reporters after the team’s 107-100 choke job in Los Angeles Sunday afternoon that they are confident the Mavs could hang with the Lakers in a playoff series. Really, Dirk? They won’t win any games as an eighth seed if Nowitzki continues to let his assigned man work him over like a deranged rodeo clown at a massage parlor. He cannot defend anybody on the Lakers. He also can’t shoot. His 6-20 disasterpiece in the Mavs’ latest loss dropped his field goal accuracy in the season series to 34 percent. As much as I want to credit Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and the other Lakers’ big men for shutting down Nowitzki’s high-octane jumpshooting game, I can’t. Is it that hard to bottle up a predictable coward who refuses to consistently attack smaller defenders? Sunday’s loss re-exposed everything you should already know about the vapid Mav
