Mavs Have the Firepower to Compete With Lakers

It's just not cool to say that a single regular-season game has much meaning, not in an 82-game schedule with the playoffs looming.

But this one did.

Much like the Magic beating the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier in the week, the Mavericks whipping the Los Angeles Lakers decisively Wednesday night was more than a little significant, proving that it's far too early to plan for that much-anticipated NBA Finals of LeBron vs. Kobe.

Don't even bet on it now.

Just when you thought everything had fallen into place, that the Lakers would walk into the Finals to defend their title, the Mavs reminded everyone why they made that trade at the All-Star break.

This is their time. Without saying too much, they believe the Lakers are beatable now in a best-of-seven series.

"It's going to be a very interesting series (with the Lakers),'' newly acquired center Brendan Haywood told FanHouse last week. "I can't wait.''

Haywood, Caron Butler and DeShawn Stevenson were added in a brilliant trade from Washington, giving them just the right pieces to counter the supposedly-unbeatable Lakers.

Butler didn't even play Wednesday, but Stevenson did, and he pestered Kobe Bryant enough to throw him off his game, which throws off the Lakers world. Stevenson isn't about to call himself a Kobe stopper, but he has just enough irreverence that he enjoys pushing his bushy beard into Kobe's face.

And Bryant doesn't like it. You could see it Wednesday night. Unlike a lot of guys who try to guard Bryant, Stevenson isn't intimidated.

Somewhere in the new schemes of under-rated coach Rick Carlisle, the Mavs have found the key to slowing Kobe. In his four games against them this season -- a 2-2 split -- Bryant has averaged only 16.3 points, while shooting 40 percent. He may have torched them in the past, but not now, not recently.

If that's not proof the Mavs can win against the Lakers, then the rest of the roster is.

Haywood gives then the veteran center -- more mobile than Erick Dampier -- who can negate LA's Andrew Bynum. In Dirk Nowitzki, they already have a power forward much better than LA's Pau Gasol. And in the battle of the old-time point guards, Jason Kidd can beat Derek Fisher every time. The matchup at small forward -- Ron Artest against Shawn Marion -- is a wash.

Yes, the Lakers have Lamar Kardashian in reserve, but the Mavs have a more explosive sixth man in veteran Jason Terry, who ran rings around the Lakers Wednesday night. The addition of Butler and Stevenson actually has helped him focus.

The Mavs (37-21) are playing their best basketball of the season at just the right time, riding a five-game winning streak going into Atlanta Friday night. Another win there will just further the belief that they have become the chosen team.

They are loaded with scorers, but their defense has been even better. The Lakers were the sixth consecutive team that failed to reach 100 points against the Mavs, joining good offensive teams like the Suns, Magic and Thunder.

Before they can see the Lakers at the Western Conference final, the Mavs must first get past the Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz and all the other contenders out West.

Yet none of them are daunting to the Mavs, anymore.

There is a maturity and confidence now about the Mavs -- which might have been helped by the departure of the unpredictable Josh Howard -- that is unmistakable.

Nowitzki remains haunted -- and focused -- by the failure of 2006, when they led the Miami Heat, 2-0, in the NBA Finals, only to lose the next four games.

It's something that clearly has stuck with him, pestered him ever since. In an interview earlier this season with FanHouse, Nowitzki admitted that his great career will be marked by that failure -- unless he can bring the first NBA title to Dallas in the future.

For him, that future could be this season.