Mavericks Sweep Lakers And Jackson Into Retirement

The Dallas Mavericks routed the Los Angeles Lakers 122-86 dashing their hopes of repeating as champions and coach Phil Jackson adding a 12th title to his illustrious career. CONTINUE READING BELOW.

Posted by Melvin Magadia on May 9th, 2011 and filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Mavericks Sweep Lakers And Jackson Into Retirement
 

The Los Angeles Lakers will no longer be able to defend their title after Jason Terry and the Dallas Mavericks turned Game 4 into a rout winning 122-86 Sunday.

It was a disappointing season for the Lakers and coach Phil Jackson, who will be retiring at the end of the season as the most successful coach in the league. The game was already decided as early as the second quarter when the Mavericks hi a barrage of 3-pointers to go up by 24 points at the end of the first half. After Dallas connected on three pointers on two consecutive possessions early in the third quarter, the Lakers knew that their season was over.

It was an amazing second quarter for the Mavericks led by Jason Terry, who hit 5 of 6 three pointers and Dallas 7 of 8. Coach Phil Jackson repeatedly demanded for his players to run at them so they would take 2 point shots instead of 3s. The Mavericks had a 13-2 run at the start of the quarter and ended it with a 10-1 run.

Jason Terry tied a playoff record with his nine 3-pointers and the Mavericks collectively established an NBA postseason mark with 11 3 pointers in the first half and 20 for the game. They had a 63 percent clip from the 3-point range on 20 of 32 shooting and 60 percent field goal 44 of 73.

Kobe Bryant could not bail the Lakers out. He only made 1 of 5 shots during the second quarter with a couple of turnovers. He needed to brush aside JJ Barea to score his only basket but the Mavericks point guard retaliated right away with a layup.

Terry led Dallas with 32 points on 11 of 14 shooting. JJ Barea had a career playoff best with 22 points and Peja Stojakovic had 21 points. All three came off the bench. Dirk Nowitzki scored 17 points, his fewest in the postseason.

Compounding things for the Lakers was the ejection of Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum in the fourth quarter. The former due to a blindside blow he gave Nowitzki and the latter for throwing an elbow on JJ Barea. Their ejection happened 45 seconds apart.

At the end of the game, coaches, players, and Dallas team owner Mark Cuban lined up to bid Phil Jackson goodbye. This is the second time that he is retiring from coaching but it’s for good this time. It was his first sweep in 21 postseasons and second biggest deficit. Phil Jackson’s career was highlighted by 11 titles and 10 series losses. He won six titles with Michael Jordan, three with the duo of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal and two with Kobe in tow.

The Mavericks will host either Oklahoma City or Memphis in the conference finals. The Grizzlies currently lead the series 2-1 with Game 4 to be played Monday night.

 

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