Tonight's game figures to be an early preview of two teams that will be in the playoffs, although the Lakers are still not at full strength as they will not have Pau Gasol still nursing a hamstring injury.
The Mavs will be a team to watch this season, as they added Shawn Marion, which helps their team in a run and gun aspect especially with Jason Kidd still running the show. In the team's opening game, the Mavs lost to the Washington Wizards 102-91 as Nowitzki and Marion led the way in scoring, but got no help from the role players.
Even without Gasol, the Lakers still have a very strong starting five. Bynum, coming off a huge game with 26 points and 13 rebounds, should be a key factor in the game as he will go up against Erick Dampier. With many people expecting big things out of the young center this season, it was definitely a great first game for the kid.
The key to the game will be the bench. Can the Lakers bench be productive unlike the the first game where they had an astounding nine points. With the Mavs, their bench scored 27 points, 12 from Terry, 13 from Barea, and 2 from Gooden. Oh they only had four players on the bench, the other being Humphries.
The Lakers should play a lot better than they did versus the Clippers. It's still early in the season and teams will be trying to get on the right track for about the first month. I think they put together a solid performance tonight and start the season 2-0.
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