LA Lakers in deep 2-0 hole

LOS ANGELES (AP):

Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks let loose with a few primal howls as they left the court, cutting through the scattered boos and gloomy silence at Staples Center.

After back-to-back wins over the Los Angeles Lakers, the Mavericks are headed home with something coach Rick Carlisle insists they expected.

These long-time play-off disappointments have a golden opportunity to knock out the two-time defending champions.

Nowitzki scored 24 points, Shawn Marion added 14 and the Mavericks stunned the erratic Lakers 93-81 in Game Two on Wednesday night, taking a 2-0 second-round lead with consecutive road wins.

"If you would have told me before that were going to win both games, that would have been hard to believe," Nowitzki said. "But I think we earned it."

Jason Kidd scored 10 points for the Mavericks, who pushed the Lakers halfway to play-off elimination with Nowitzki's stellar shooting, another steady defensive performance, and a decisive 9-0 fourth-quarter rally. Dallas did nothing spectacularly well, yet was significantly better than the cold-shooting Lakers on both ends.

good defence

"We came to compete, and we came to make something happen here," Marion said. "We made our presence felt on both ends of the floor tonight. We did a good job of handling their pressure and just going out there and doing what we've been doing all postseason, just playing good defence and just playing our style of play."

Kobe Bryant scored 23 points for the Lakers, who hadn't lost the first two games of a play-off series since the 2008 NBA finals - also the last series they lost. Only three NBA teams have come back to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first two at home, where dismayed fans sent the Lakers off with boos and jeers.

"We came here to win two games," Carlisle said. "We're going to need every gun blazing and throw the kitchen sink at these guys when they come to our place."

Game Three is tonight in Dallas.

Los Angeles missed their first 15 3-point attempts in Game Two, only avoiding its first play-off game without a 3-pointer since May 8, 2001, on Bryant's 3-pointer with 2:43 left. Los Angeles finished 2 for 20 on 3-pointers, but the Lakers also appeared simply exhausted during long stretches of their 75th play-off game in the last four seasons.

Centre Andrew Bynum saw another reason for the Lakers' frustrations.

"It's deeply rooted at this point. It's obvious that we have trust issues, individually," said Bynum, who had 18 points and 13 rebounds. "All 13 of our guys have trust issues right now. I think it's quite obvious to anyone watching the game - hesitation on passes, and defensively we're not being a good teammate because he wasn't there for you before ... little things. And unless we come out and discuss them, nothing is going to change."

Bryant wrote off Bynum's comments as concerns about the Lakers' defensive communication.

"I think the trust that he's referring to is being able to help each other on the defensive end of the floor," Bryant said. "You saw a lot of layups. He gets frustrated when he supports a guard coming off the screen-and-roll and nobody supports him."

possible suspension

But Los Angeles also could be without its defensive stopper in Dallas: Ron Artest was ejected with 24.4 seconds left for clotheslining Dallas guard Jose Barea, possibly leading to a suspension. Even Lakers coach Phil Jackson conceded "there's a good chance" he won't have Artest tonight.

"It's not a basketball play, so we'll see what happens," Barea said.

After years of play-off underachievement during owner Mark Cuban's tenure, the Mavericks certainly appear primed to change their reputation.

Dallas, who won just one play-off series in the past four years before this spring, were more aggressive and inventive than the champs, maintaining a steady lead before breaking it open with nine straight points down the stretch in the rally led by Barea, who highlighted it with an impressive short shot directly over Bynum. Barea had 12 points and four assists.

Meanwhile in the east, Chicago defeated the Atlanta Hawks 86-73 to level their conference semi-final series at 1-1. Derrick Rose led the Bulls with 25 points while the leading scorer for the Hawks was Jeff Teague with 21.