LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Dallas left the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers on the ropes with a 93-81 road victory that gave the Mavericks a 2-0 second round series lead.
In the Eastern Conference, the Chicago Bulls rebounded from a surprise opening defeat to Atlanta with an 86-73 win over the Hawks, leveling their second-round series at 1-1.
In the West, Dirk Nowitzki scored 24 points and the Mavericks shut down the Lakers offence to beat them for a second straight time on their home floor as they head back to Dallas in a comfortable position for Game Three today.
“We’re doing a great job defensively, we have to keep that up if we want to finish the series,” Mavs guard Jose Juan Barea told reporters after scoring 12 points.
“We’ve been trying to play good defense all year, and it worked out tonight.”
The Lakers were held to just 32 second-half points and were showered with boos as they walked off the court in defeat.
Kobe Bryant scored 23 points but he and his team mates could only make two of 20 three-pointer attempts.
After leading by two at halftime, Dallas stretched their advantage to six after three quarters before blowing the game open in the fourth to take a 84-69 advantage with 4:39 to go.
In Chicago, after receiving the league’s MVP trophy in front of his home crowd, Derrick Rose recorded 25 points and 10 assists and seemed to be moving well enough on a twisted left ankle sustained in the previous game.
“It’s going to be a tough series, we just have to find our rhythm. Mine is still coming but my confidence is still high,” Rose told reporters after making only 10 of 27 shots.
“I’m good (physically). I just missed shots that I normally hit.”
The Hawks trailed by 14 points midway through the fourth quarter but trimmed the lead to 77-71 with 4:16 remaining but Chicago then went on a 6-0 run to make the game safe.
Game Three is today in Atlanta.
Atlanta’s Jeff Teague, who played little in the first round but is starting in place of the injured Kirk Hinrich, led the visitors with 21 points.
Joe Johnson added 16 after dropping 34 in the series opener, and the Hawks shot just 33 percent.
Chicago’s Joakim Noah had 19 points and 14 rebounds.
