By Tim MacMahon
ESPN Dallas
LOS ANGELES -- One franchise seeks to three-peat for the second time in the past 11 years. The other has a horrible recent history of playoff failure and has yet to hang a title banner.
You certainly can't tell which is which based on the first two games of these Western Conference semifinals.
The Dallas Mavericks are playing and behaving like champions, keeping an even keel after seizing control of the series. The Los Angeles Lakers look like a dysfunctional team on the brink of destruction, whining about "trust issues" after getting whipped on their home floor.
Dallas coach Rick Carlisle scoffed at a question about whether he was surprised to walk out of the Staples Center with a 2-0 series lead after Wednesday night's convincing 93-81 win. His superstar, however, admitted this road trip went better than he could have imagined.
"If you would have told me before that we were going to win both games," Dirk Nowitzki said, "it would have been hard to believe."
It sure isn't hard to believe in these Mavericks all of a sudden.
Forget about all that postseason misery since the Mavericks took a 2-0 lead in the 2006 Finals. The Mavs have made those painful memories absolutely irrelevant. This is a completely different team than the previous Dallas editions.
These Mavs are a dominant defensive team, as evidenced by their West-best 88 points allowed per game in the playoffs.
Just look at the stats from the second half. The mighty Lakers managed to score a grand total of 32 points in 24 minutes. The Mavs made the Lakers a passive, jump-shooting, brick-laying bunch that shot only 33 percent from the floor after halftime.
"We really got dispirited," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said.
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