The Dallas Mavericks enter Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals tonight with a golden opportunity to take command of the series with another victory.

But after the Los Angeles dropped Game 1, Jason Kidd is well aware the Lakers are going to bring everything they have to Game 2.

"We expect them to be the two-time defending champs," point guard Jason Kidd said heading into Wednesday night’s contest. "They’ve seen a lot of different scenarios. They were in this scenario just in their last series, so we expect their best game tonight and throughout the series."

In Game 1, it was Jason’s defense late that grabbed everyone’s attention. But his passing, particularly in getting center Tyson Chandler involved in the scoring, was a big boost as well. Sam Amick of Sports Illustrated writes of Chandler’s comfort with a point guard like J-Kidd:

Just as Chandler did with Paul back in his Hornets days, he’s hoping to continue teaming with Jason Kidd to hurt the Lakers with his trademark, acrobatic pick-and-roll sets more often in Wednesday’s Game 2.

"Back in the day when I was with the Hornets, we used to have a great time on the pick-and-roll with the Lakers because of their bigs, and our guards’ quickness in being able to penetrate," Chandler said. "I told the guys in this series, it’s the same thing. We come in, set good picks, get penetration, make their bigs jump off to me and I’ll finish. I feel like we’ll have a lot more opportunities like that in this series."

Of Jason’s 11 assists in Game 1, three went to Chandler for big alley-oop jams. Thanks to feeds from Jason, the Dallas big men outplayed their Los Angeles counterparts down low. The Mavs had 36 points in the paint and grabbed 40 rebounds on the evening. Chandler outplayed LA’s Andrew Bynum with 11 points and nine assists to Bynum’s eight and five. But the Mavs expect the Lakers to amp up their inside game after Game 1:

"They’re going to come with more force and we got to make sure we’re concentrating on our own game,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "We got to be ready to release pressure. We got to be ready for a more physical game. But at the end of the day, we got to play our game better than they play their game.”

That includes defensively where Jason shadowed Kobe Bryant for the final minute. But when Jason heard the term "Kobe-stopper" bandied about after the game, he backed the wagons up a bit. J-Kidd noted that he employed a sound strategy on Bryant, but with a player that great, sometimes it doesn’t always work:

"Just to make it as tough as possible," Kidd told NBA.com’s Sekou Smith when asked about his strategy. "I’ve seen a lot of those game winners up close and personal when I was with Phoenix. He’s a talent, he’s going to make shots and put you in a bad situation and you just hope he misses at the right time."

VETERAN RIVALS
As is generally the case, Jason, with 17 NBA seasons under his belt, is the most experienced point guard in the second round series.

But the gap isn’t as big as it usually is. That’s because J-Kidd’s counterpart in the series, Derek Fisher, is a seasoned playoff veteran himself. On the day a 22-year-old point, Derrick Rose was named NBA MVP, Jason said he has great respect for what Fisher has been able to do:

"Fish has all the hardware when you talk about championships and playing in big games," Kidd said. "He understands how to play. You look at a 22-year-old Rose who wins the M.V.P. and it just shows how young the talent is in this league and how talented these young players are."

Fisher has a mutual respect for J-Kidd, which he shared with The New York Times:

"It’s Jason’s ability to manage a game," said Fisher, who had 8 points, 6 assists and 2 steals in Game 1 Monday. "Manage his teammates and his personnel that I think have always made him great. I’m sure he can score more and do more things offensively if he wanted to, just like he could have earlier in his career. But he chooses to do what he feels is best for his team to be successful. That’s why he’s still good at 38 because he’s doing what he likes to do and that’s make people around him better."

The Mavs drew on their experience in the third quarter of Game 1. Down by 16 points, coach Rick Carlisle called a timeout to stem the Lakers’ tide. From there, Jason and the Mavs went about chipping away at the Lakers’ lead much in the same way the Portland Trail Blazers did to them in Game 4 of their first round playoff series. And much like Portland did, once Dallas grabbed the lead in the closing moments, they refused to give it back.

"I think everybody on this team has been in a situation where they’ve been down," Jason said. "We can all reflect on that first round that we were down 20, and we were up 20 plus and lost the lead and the game, so sometimes you can reflect as close as that last series and pull from it. But guys started to relax I think a little bit and we started making plays."

The Mavs expect the Lakers to pull from their own experience when Game 2 tips tonight.

"They’re champions for a reason," Jason said. "You have to be prepared for them to respond the way a championship team would."

Game 2 tips off at 9:30 CT on TNT.

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