The Dallas Mavericks were lucky to beat the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of their playoff series Monday night, and not just because Shawn Marion was playing with a cut above his eye. The Mavs had one of the worst endings to a first half of basketball I’ve ever seen. Honestly, the fouls committed by Jason Terry and Dirk Nowitzki to end the half were two of the dumbest you’ll ever see.
Terry was trying to play aggressive defense on Lamar Odom who was getting ready for a half-court heave with less than a second left. He ended up fouling Odom and giving him three free throws. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Dirk got whistled for a technical after he threw an elbow at Ron Artest on Odom’s third free throw. I understand fighting for position, but let’s be real — there was less than a second left — what was going to happen?
The Dallas Mavericks literally gave away four points to the Lakers to end the half and ended up down 53-44 instead of 49-44. Luckily they won the game otherwise you could point to those four points as the biggest culprit. Honestly, the Mavs may want to open up a loan company if they keep giving away points for free like that. That was truly embarrassing and the team won’t be able to get away with those mental mistakes the rest of the series.
You can see a replay of both stupid fouls at the :50 mark in this video:
