There's the unexpected beatdown the supposedly soft Hawks gave to the Magic, despite the magnificent series Dwight Howard had.
There's the yawner of a series between the Celtics and the Knicks, which was supposedly a match up made in heaven.
There's the rough-and-tumble series between the Bulls and the feisty Pacers, who made every game a fight to the death.
And there's the Cinderella Grizzlies totally demolishing the top seeded Spurs, dominating basically every game of that series.
And now, in the second round, another set of upsets.
The Mavs could have given up in the third quarter, when the Lakers posted a 16point lead. Instead, they decided to see if the Lakers had what it took to hold on to a lead against a desperate opponent.
And, in this game, the Lakers didn't have it. After the Mavs grabbed a one point lead, Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol teamed up for a turnover, forcing the Lakers to foul the Mavs in the next possession. After Kidd made one freethrow, Kobe Bryant missed a winning threepointer, backrimming it off from the top of the key.
Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavs with 28points, 14rebounds while Jason Terry added 15 points. Kobe Bryant scored 36 points and grabbed 5 rebounds while Pau Gasol had 15points and 11 rebounds.
The missing piece, for the Lakers, was Andrew Bynum, who scored 8points and had 5 assists in 29minutes. The piece the Lakers could have done without was Ron Artest, who scored 2 points on 1-8 shooting.
The Mavs drew solid games from Tyson Chandler (11points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks) and Shawn Marion (10points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists) as the win Game 1 by a score of 96-94 and get the 1-0 series lead.
More of the story here.
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