Embarrassment is an understatement. It was an embarrassing effort from the entire team until Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum ratcheted it up to reprehensible. This was an affront to Phil Jackson, one of the best coaches ever, and the Lakers, one of the best franchises ever. The Lakers were outplayed and outclassed in every single aspect of the game. The Lakers dynasty did end with a bang. But it was the bang of J.J. Barea's body hitting the floor after a forearm shiver from Andrew Bynum.

The Mavs exposed the Lakers' biggest weaknesses en route to a 122-86 - I don't think there is any single adjective to describe it - loss.

The bench play of J.J. Barea, Jason Terry and Peja Stojakovich illustrates everything the Lakers' bench lacks. Barea is a quick, young guard that can penetrate and distribute. He offers a nice change of pace from the more methodical Jason Kidd. The Lakers on the other hand have Steve Blake. Blake was supposed to play nearly equal minutes to Fisher and be a strong defender and 3-point shooter. He proved to be neither of these in the playoffs and underperformed in the regular season.

Terry is that spark off the bench that can break just about anyone down off the dribble but can also hit the spot-up 3-pointer. The Lakers have Shannon Brown. He might get a SportsCenter Top 10 dunk but he has lacked consistency and never earned the trust of Phil Jackson to earn an increase in minutes.

Stojakovich is the veteran who is a deadly assassin from 3-point range. The Lakers have no one that can do what Peja can. It is a hole that has been left open since Robert Horry. With a team as strong on the inside as the Lakers they have no one who can hit the spot-up 3-pointer with consistency.

Outside of Odom, the Lakers had no reliable bench players. The Lakers are an older team and that is part of the problem but their top six are still probably the best in the league. But when those six are required to play extra minutes and are counted on to do nearly all the damage they are bound to wear down.

The Lakers have no transition game whereas the Mavs love to run. The stats show the Mavs outscored the Lakers 18-12 in fastbreak points in Game 4. But that doesn't include all the times the Mavs pushed it, made a couple of passes and got good looks. Barea and Kidd were always looking to advance the ball immediately. They almost never took the ball up court and waited for each team to get settled. This movement kept the Lakers off-guard and always chasing.

On the other end, the Lakers almost never pushed the ball. Without that depth and the right personnel in the second unit they had to settle for operating in a halfcourt set. They are a great halfcourt team but when you eliminate even the option of running for easy layups you're taking away a huge weapon and one that tends to energize the crowd and team leading to big runs.

Aside from getting open looks from transition, the Mavs kept the ball moving. They'd drive and kick, run pick and rolls and pass out of double-teams causing the Lakers to scramble to match back up. Some might look at the stats and see the Mavs made 20 of 32 3-pointers and assume they were just on fire. Sure, that's part of it but because of the ball movement they had 17 wide-open looks and knocked down 13 of those. If you take those out they were 7 of 17 - a good percentage but not outrageous.

Instead of moving the ball and trying to cause chaos for the Mavs' defense, the Lakers were content to run isolation plays. They'd pass it inside to Gasol and Bynum who would make a move to see if their defender would give any ground and if not they'd pass it back out to the perimeter for someone (usually Kobe) to try and work on their defender.

The Mavs were a much better team and they absolutely picked apart the Lakers and deserve a ton of credit for doing so. It's not an embarrassment to lose to a superior team that played its best basketball of the season. But it is an embarrassment to not only give up but then disrespect the opponent and the game with dangerous cheap shots. First it was a frustrated Odom with a body check on Dirk Nowitzki. You'd think his immediate ejection would've been a warning to the rest of the players. But Bynum took it to the next level throwing his forearm into Barea's side as he was indefensible in going up for a layup. And just for a quick tale of the tape - Barea is 6'0, 175 lbs and Bynum is 7'0, 285 lbs. Not exactly a fair fight even if they had been on equal ground.

But enough about the pathetic Lakers. There will be plenty more time to dissect this team and its flaws in trying to determine what the franchise will need to do to get back to championship play next season. Let me end with high praise for the Mavericks. Dirk Nowitzki is unguardable. Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood bring a toughness this team has never had. Terry, Stojakovich and Barea make for a deep and deadly bench. And they've done this without their second-best player, Caron Butler who has been injured since the beginning of the calendar year. It's truly an amazing accomplishment that shouldn't be overshadowed by the juvenile acts of the Lakers.