Game 1

Wow. Surprising game there. Dallas really felt like they stole the game. I thought Jason Kidd played terrible from what parts of the game I watched. My blog entry was going to be about how they ought to either bench him or at least play Barea 50% of the time. But then he comes on at the end and plays tough defense on Kobe and gets the big steal to essentially win the game...although Kobe had an open 3 there at the end. Kobe fans are blind to the sheer number of misses and chokes this guy causes at the end of games. I swear he's under 50% for his career.

UPDATE: I agree with Barkley's analysis that Dirk essentially takes away the Lakers big length advantage. Neither Gasol or Bynum can cover him and so the Lakers best bet is Lamar Odom, who can kinda guard Dirk on defense and who can challenge him on offense by bringing him out to the perimeter.

The Mavs are an interesting team. They can put in offensive or defensive line-ups. Offensive line ups are Dirk plus 4 shooters, so you can punish the other team if they try and double. Defensive, they throw in Chandler and then they have two 7 footers, making easy baskets in the paint difficult.