Beat the Lakers

      It's the only way to call the current NBA season
a success...The Dallas Mavericks now face a major 
obstacle in their road to the championship...and it 

is called the Los Angeles Lakers. The two teams entered the playoffs with almost the same record, but Laker superstar Kobe Bryant hit a three point shot at the buzzer to give the Lakers the number one seed in the  Western Conference, while Dallas is number two. The Mavericks have a history of NOT doing well in the playoffs despite having steller performances in the regular season. They have added a couple of big men since last year, but still the burden will be on the backs of Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki. Kidd has played for other teams in the NBA, but Nowitzki has been a Mav since day one. The seven foot German was suppose to elevate Dallas to championship caliber, but so far it has not happened. Two years ago Dallas folded in the finals against Miami, despite winning the first two games of the Championship series. Dallas is coming off a first-round win over Portland and the Trail Blazers tried to make it a blue-collar series. They roughed up the Mavs to try and make them lose their composure, but Dallas took the series in six games. Now it is a different and stronger opponent as they enter the Western Conference Semi-Finals. All eyes will be on Nowitzki to see if he can finally attain the superstar status he has been promising all these years.