It's been three days since the Lakers lay down and invited the Mavericks to spend a Sunday afternoon kicking them in the face, and I can't say my bitterness has faded much. Two championships were needed to drain away the poisonous memories of Game Six in Boston. If the Lakers hold up their end of the bargain by winning back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013, I'll be happy to forgive what happened in Dallas. Until then, I'm going to make myself feel better the way I always do: by assigning blame to other people for things that displease me.

After the cut, I've handed out postseason grades to every Laker who took the court in the first or second round. Devin Ebanks didn't play, so he gets an incomplete. Neither did Derrick Caracter, but for getting pinched by the New Orleans PD while "obviously drunk" at an IHOP, he earns an honorary F minus. Everyone else is listed in ascending order of minutes played.

To the report cards!

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With 8 minutes and 21 seconds left in the game, and in his season, Andrew Bynum decided he had had enough.  No more hedging on screens.  No more helping the helper.  No more watching as the Dallas Mavericks blew by the perimeter defender of their choice.  He saw J.J. Barea, the child-man who was symbolic of everything that had gone wrong with the Lakers championship hopes, blow by his defender one more time.  Drew stepped over and, instead of attempting a block (on the one play in which Barea tossed up a shot just begging for rejection, I might add), he delivered an elbow to Barea's chest, just under the right arm, and then immediately started walking towards the exit, not even waiting to be told he was ejected.

It was a disgusting act.  You don't need Kobe Bryant to tell you that, but he did.  You don't need Mitch Kupchak's approval to deem it so, but judging by the look on his face after it happened, he approves of your label.  You don't need a Lakers fan to agree with you, but we do.  There are few throughout Lakers Nation with the temerity to attempt any sort of justification for what Andrew did.  The fanbase is as unanimous on this as one can reasonably expect when it comes to assailing the character of a beloved player.  Mike Tirico called it, on the spot, as "the most bush-league thing I've ever seen", and while ever is a pretty big word,  there can be no doubt that Bynum's offense will likely join the montage of unsavory moments that are remembered throughout history any time something of this nature occurs, along with Kermit Washington, Kevin McHale, and Ron Artest.

Disgusting.  Bush-league.  Classless.  These are all the proper terms to describe what Andrew Bynum did.  These are the terms that have Laker fans ashamed of him.  But none of them are the proper terms to describe why what Andrew Bynum did is a serious problem. 

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Yesterday, the Los Angeles Lakers saw their season come to a stunning, early, and shameful end, losing to the Dallas Mavericks, 122-86, and being ignominiously swept out of the playoffs a full two rounds earlier than they have advanced for the past three years.  Stunning?  I meant predictable.  After all, before Game 3, I all but called how this series would end, committing to words exactly how badly Laker teams have flamed out in those of the last 15 years that haven't ended with parades.  Early? Hindsight is obviously 20/20 here, but based upon this series, and what we know of the limitations of the team faced in the last round, one has to ask if the Lakers would even have advanced past round one if they had faced any team but the one they did.  It is no coincidence that, of the eight teams which advanced to Round 2, all the other ones are still playing, because they are all better than whatever it is the Lakers became in their final weeks.  Using the Hornets as a baseline, and the Mavericks as the team to measure against, one has to believe the Lakers would likely have lost to any other team in the West. 

Shameful? Yes, yes, a hundred times yes.  For both the plays, and the players, this team, and its fans, should feel shame.  But even that shame, for which there is no mitigating or explanatory circumstance in the moment, mixes with, and is ultimately shaded out by, its counterpart, pride.  Because yesterday signaled the end of an era, historical context and perspective must be processed right along with the emotion of what has happened.  The historical perspective is that the Lakers have gone on a magical run, and no level of shame and disappointment can remove, or tarnish, that magic, no matter how hard the team seemed to try.

Pride and shame.  To feel both at the same time, regarding the same entity, is a surreal experience, and it is one that we are all sharing.  We are proud of our team.  We are ashamed of our players.

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The Black Mamba lies in darkness.  He is bruised, beaten, bloodied.  His body has been pumped full of buckshot.  Hands tied, he watches as what little light remains in his world is extinguished.  The German and his friends are nailing The Mamba's coffin shut.  The coffin is placed in the ground, and The Mamba can only listen as piles and piles of dirt are heaped on top of him.  This is to be his grave.

But he is not yet dead.  He does not panic.  He takes stock of the situation.  He turns on the flashlight left him by The German, who does not completely lack in humanity.  The Mamba observes his predicament, sees there can be no easy escape, but he formulates a plan.  He uses his feet to remove his boot, where he has a knife stored.  He manages the knife up to his hands, balances the flashlight on his chest, and saws through the rope that binds him, freeing himself from bondage. 

He knows his only hope lies in remembering his training. 

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There once was a basketball team who spent their days sitting on a perch high atop the NBA.  They won games with ease, so much so that one day, they became bored, and decided to cry out "We suck! We suck! Our point guard is too old and slow, we can't deal with small penetrating point guards, we can't shoot, and hard working, athletic teams will beat us even when they shouldn't".  Immediately, the team's fans came running to the team's side, panicked, only to find the team defense strong, point guards contained, and three point shots falling as a championship was won in the playoffs.  The fans were relieved, and forgot their mild annoyance that the team would raise an alarm so falsely.

Eventually, the team became bored again so once more, they devilishly cried out "We suck! We suck! Our bench play is terrible!  Our offensive execution is poor.  Our young center is hurt, and our star post player is soft!"  Once again, the fans came running, afraid that the team would falter, only to find the offense potent, the bench contributing at just the right times, and a power forward who stood up to the league's biggest bullies on the biggest stage, and the championship was once again theirs.  The fans were thankful for victory, but chided the team. "Stop making us think you have problems when you don't!" they said.

Later on, the team cried out again "We suck! We suck! Our point guard is too old and slow, we can't deal with small penetrating guards, we can't shoot, hard working athletic teams will beat us even when they shouldn't, our bench play is terrible, our offensive execution is poor, our star post player is soft, our superstar can no longer dominate, and we can not execute on offense or defense down the stretch of a close game."  But this time, the fans ignored the team's cries, believing the team to be pulling the same trick all over again.

Eventually, when the team did not show up, the fans went in search of the team, and found the team weeping atop their perch, their hopes of a championship destroyed.  "What happened?!?" cried the fans.  "We called out for help, to warn you that we weren't good enough, but nobody came to our aid.  Nobody took our cries seriously".  To which the leader of the fans, the one they call C.A. responded:

Nobody believes a liar, even when they are telling the truth.

Tonight, the Los Angeles Lakers face the Dallas Mavericks in Game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals with the hopes of keeping their season on life support.  The team is certainly not dead, but their chances to advance to the next round are slim, to say nothing of any progression towards a championship that would be the only measure of true success.  The Lakers are in this troublesome position because of a combination of strong play from a tough opponent, and the Lakers picking a bad time to put together some of their worst basketball of the season.  It is not their poor play, however, that is most troubling in observing what has, so far at least, been a stunning collapse of the defending champs.  Of far greater concern has been the team's apparent mental make up. 

The Lakers played the 2nd half of Game 2 as if resigned to their fate.  There was little urgency, no sense that the Lakers understood the seriousness of the predicament they were in.  What little desperation existed ended up doing more harm than good, in the form of missed three pointers, and forced Lamar Odom drives.  By the time J.J. Barea finally put the Lakers in the grave, the defensive execution smacked of laziness.  It's possible the Lakers collectively decided it just wasn't their night, and their energy would be best saved for the Everest of a mountain they will now have to climb.  But the more likely interpretation is that, in that moment, the Lakers did not have any answers for the questions Dallas was forcing upon them.  We've seen the Lakers execute poorly, take games off, and go through long stretches of poor play, but I don't know that I've ever seen this current incarnation of the purple and gold look so lost.

I have but one request of the Lakers tonight, and for the remainder of this series.  It is not "Please win", though I very much hope for it to be the case.  The Lakers may not be dead just yet, but the Mavericks are a formidable enough opponent that demanding or expecting L.A. to win four games in five chances is a tough ask, even if the Lakers do begin to solve the myriad of problems that have left them in this position.  They've given Dallas to much of a head start for that.  Instead, the one request I have, the one thing I will be looking for, is this:

Please, if tonight is going to be the beginning of the end of this illustrious, if short-lived, reign over the NBA, please go out with a bang, and not a whimper.

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Two nights ago, the Lakers completed one of the worst three point shooting nights in NBA playoff history making only 2 of 20 attempts.  Only two other teams in playoff history have had an equally horrific shooting night from deep. The first was Detroit in a 66-64 loss to Boston in 2002, in what had to be the worst playoff game ever on the eyes.  Boston won the game shooting 34.6% from the field and they themselves went 2 for 19 from behind the arc.  The second game is the well known-choke job by the Sacramento Kings in the 2002 Western Conference Finals Game 7.  The Kings should have easily ended the Lakers quest for a three-peat that night but their failure to connect on any shots (they were 53% from the line as well) ultimately led to their demise.  How ironic it is that nine years later it's the Lakers who are on the unfortunate end of having an epic cold shooting streak, including only 55% from the line, that this time could end the quest for another three-peat. Thankfully for the Lakers this was not game 7, and so they still have time to right the ship.

Obviously luck, or I should say lack-there-of, played a huge role in the game's results.  The Lakers are not a good three-point shooting team (they finished 18th in three-point percentage this season) but they will not have many games where they make only 10% of their attempts.  The consensus' thought is that the Lakers will certainly revert to form and shoot much better the rest of the series.  It is this recognition of small sample size randomness that leads one to not over-react and assume the Lakers will shoot 10% the rest of the series.  Interestingly enough, if Lakers management had used this same discretion in the past, perhaps the Lakers would not be in this predicament in the first place.

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Amidst a cavalcade of boos and a plethora of bricks, any hopes the Los Angeles Lakers had of glory and gold were all but dashed as they demonstrated one of the more spectacular implosions you will ever see from a playoff team, never mind one of their caliber.  As it was happening, as the Dallas Mavericks were slowly choking the life out the back-to-back defending champions on their own floor, this scribe watched, not in anger, but in awe.  There were but two bemused thoughts intertwining their way through my head.

This is justice.  Justice sucks.

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