1) In perusing last night's box score, I noticed an interesting little nugget.  It goes without saying that the  seventeen rebounds collected by Lamar Odom represents a huge night on the boards.  But six of them grabs were of the offensive variety, only two shy of the Mavs' entire total.  More importantly, four either helped set up an ensuing Laker bucket or led to a Laker at the stripe.  One of those trips was for LO himself, where he knocked down those huge freebies with just under thirty ticks left.  Given how close this game turned out, those second chance points (which simultaneously represented denying  Dallas an actual chance to score) may arguably be the most crucial stat of the night.   

2) Save an opportunity to hit the reportedly killer slopes, I've never felt a pressing desire to visit Utah.  Nothing personal against the state.  There's just nothing about, say, Provo that makes me think, "I just gotta hit that spot before turning 40!"  But now that I'm here, gotta admit, Salt Lake City ain't bad.  Kinda quaint, with some fantastic landscapes.  Snow covered mountains surrounding a city on all sides make for a very appealing skyline.  Granted, a little bit of my admiration could very well be rooted in a desperate desire to leave Big D.  The last 24 hours had me ready to hop a plane to Scranton.  But all kidding aside, while I need to see more before awarding SLC an official thumbs up or down, I found my excursion to the hotel rather scenic. 

3) The big reason I wanted to go inside the Mavs locker room last night, outside of the plainly obvious fact that I have every right to be there?  I was hoping to get Josh Howard's thoughts on the job Shane Battier did guarding Kobe during Sunday's loss against Houston, since he'd likely spend some time on Bryant.  More specifically, the very unusual technique of looking purely to keep a hand in Kobe's grill, as opposed to contesting the shot itself.  Unfortunately, as I already knew but learned first hand, the Mavs locker room is a "No-Blog Zone" (which makes him come off as ridiculous as Bill O'Reilly, but I digress).  Thankfully, my lovely Times colleague Helene Elliott was kind enough to venture inside Mark Cuban's Shangri-La and ask Howard for me.  She only had a few minutes with him, but managed to yield copy that can only be described as fairly sensitive and potentially inflammatory (which is to be expected, considering the inappropriate nature of the questions, typical of what gets asked by your garden-variety unsupervised blogger).  I can totally see why Cuban would be dead set on preventing me from mining the following info.   

Josh Howard, On what he learned (if anything) about guarding Bryant
"Try to keep a hand in his face, I guess.  Coach stressed that today.  I didn't really watch the game.  That's something Battier's been doing his whole career and it's been effective against Kobe.  I'll try to do it and if not, we have great team defense as an option."

On what makes Kobe such a difficult assignment
"He's always shooting the ball.  It's hard to guard somebody that's shooting the ball all the time.  It's gonna take great team defense.  We'll need great team defense."

Like I said, explosive material stemming from inquiries that pushed the envelope of taste and responsibility.  Kudos to Cuban for being the one man tough enough to battle this madness. 

4) In the wake of Phil Jackson announcing that Andrew Bynum's timetable is now the first round of the playoffs, a thought occurred to me.  Unless the Lakers make it to at least the Western Conference finals or beyond (fingers crossed), I'm thinking Bynum will definitely play the rest of these season's game from the pine (which Jackson had earlier acknowledged was already possible).  Beyond just the notion of Bynum needing to work himself into game shape, PJ's task of working him into a lineup with fellow tall dudes Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom is likely too complicated to make seamless after a few playoff games, maybe even a series or two.  You've got Drew and Pau learning to play with each other.  LO switching positions yet again.  Unless things are going poorly enough with the current starting lineup that a change feels necessary (like when Jordan Farmar took over for Smush right before the playoffs), I see the current Fisher-Kobe-Vlad-Odom-Gasol unit taking the court for every opening tip.

Is this a bad thing?  Not necessarily.  It may not be as exciting and it certainly could be more anti-climactic, but again, not the same thing as "bad."  While the notion of the Purple and Gold unleashing their twin towers thrilled Laker fans and unnerved the rest of the league, there is something to be said for Bynum bolstering the bench while regaining strength.  Even at 60-70%, I imagine Bynum's better than most backup centers he'll face in the postseason.  Remember how big an asset he was earlier this season as a member of "The Mob?"  You could do worse than reliving those days, especially considering how the pine crew's come down to Earth a bit after consistently beating the snot out of every opponent's second unit.  Farmar and Bynum had a nice two-man game going.  Plus, Bynum at the five allows Ronny Turiaf to finally get significant minutes at the four, which plays considerably better to his strengths.  I'm pretty sure Martinique's Favorite Son is pretty geeked at the chance to get more run at his natural position.  The coaching staff wouldn't exactly mind, either. 

Plus, there's the intrigue this development allows Laker fans.  While I'm sure the postseason will inevitably offer scattered minutes of a Bynum-Gasol duo, we won't likely get a true idea of what these two are capable of until '08-'09.  Which will make the summer kinda like 3-4 months of being a six-year old waiting by the Christmas tree for Santa to drop off the goodies.  Assuming you don't also have the patience of an actual six-year old, it could be fun having something this potentially awesome to visualize.  If nothing else, it'll help kill an offseason.

5) I was obviously aware of it at the time, but even a day later, Jason Kidd only taking three shots on the night still seems strange.  Seriously?  Three?  Dude launched the same amount as Erick Dampier (with fewer makes).  I realize Kidd may have been concentrating on setting folks up, but there's a difference between being a "facilitator" and appearing to have taken over the departed DeSagana Diop's offensive duties.  The next time LO bends fans out of shape by only taking 8 shots, they can look back on this night and find a little solace.    

6) All kidding aside, I am SO happy to be out of Dallas.  My mojo ran bone dry within roughly 30 minutes of arriving.  Things can only be looking up here, right? 

Right?

AK