NBA Playoffs 2011: LA Lakers, Dallas Mavericks Vie for Last Shot at Championship

The conference semifinals of the 2011 NBA Playoffs are set to tip off on Sunday, following one of the greatest opening rounds in the league's postseason history—at least since the first round was extended to a best-of-seven series in 2003.

The matchup in the East between the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat has dominated the headlines at the outset and figures to draw the most attention until the Conference Finals are set, and rightfully so. After all, no other series going can boast the kind and depth of storylines attached to it, from LeBron James trying to finally break through against Gang Green, to a showdown between two of the NBA's most talented trios, to the Heat proving that they belong nary a year since Pat Riley's free agency windfall.

A Very Geriatric Semifinal

Except, perhaps, for the series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks.

Okay, so maybe Lakers-Mavs doesn't have any sexy back stories concerning sour postseason outcomes—the two teams haven't met this late in the spring since June of 1988—or questions about about old guard vs. new guard.

In fact, this series is predominantly about the old guard, or should I say old guards...and forwards.

The Lakers and the Mavs are two of the oldest teams in the NBA, with average ages of 29.98 years and 29.47 years, respectively, placing them as the second and third oldest in the league behind only (interestingly enough) the aforementioned Miami Heat, who check in at a whopping 31.32 years of age on average.

However, adjust those numbers for minutes played, as the Bailey Brothers of Hoopism.com did, and you get a slightly different picture, with the Mavs checking in at No. 1 and the Lakers right behind at No. 2.

Oldies But Goodies...But Mostly Oldies

Which brings us to the crux of what makes this series so interesting, aside from the fact that it pits two of the Western Conference's most prominent teams of the last decade against one another in the postseason for the first time since their current regimes came to power.

In short: the majority of the most prominent players in this postseason skirmish are, in basketball terms, old.

For the Purple and Gold, career twilight will soon be calling for Kobe Bryant (age 32), Lamar Odom (31), Pau Gasol (30), Derek Fisher (36), Ron Artest (31) and Matt Barnes (31).

For Dallas, such a list includes Dirk Nowitzki (32), Shawn Marion (32), Jason Terry (33), Brendan Haywood (31), Peja Stojakovic (33) and the oldest star left in all the playoffs—Jason Kidd (38).

The concerns of age deepen when considering the wear and tear that 15 years in the league and seven trips to the NBA Finals have wrought on Kobe's body, and how much multiple knee injuries and the subsequent surgeries have aged the achy knees of 23-year-old Andrew Bynum.

Throw in summers spent competing internationally for Bryant, Kidd, Odom, Nowitzki, Gasol and Marion, and you can't help but wonder if the loser of this series might take the team bus straight to the nearest convalescent home.

Not to mention the future prospects of championship contention for whichever squad squanders its spot in the NBA's Elite Eight, which will be all but dead and buried regardless of whether or not there's a lockout next season.

Windows Closing

The proverbial window of championship contention will fall precariously closer to slamming shut with each passing defeat for these two teams.

Lakers fans have had the privilege of watching Kobe's brilliance in action for the past decade and a half, though that figures to change sooner rather than later now that the Black Mamba no longer has cartilage in his knees.

And what are the Lakers to make of Pau, who has flipped and flopped his way through his prime while doing little to thicken his chest to match wits with his considerable skill?

Or without Phil Jackson, who has guided the ever-turbulent Lakers to five rings but won't be around next season to play Zen Master in a ludicrous LA locker room? 

Then again, at least the Lake Show will have a young though decidedly inconsistent talent in Bynum to lean on going forward.

As for the Mavs, there doesn't appear to be an heir apparent in Dallas, unless you think Roddy Beaubois and J.J. Barea really constitute the "wave of the future" for Mark Cuban's club. 

Dirk may be in the first year of a four-year, $80 million deal that he signed during the Summer of LeBron, despite being on the downslope of his prime after 13 seasons in the league.

And how effective will the aging Big German be when he and the Mavs have to roll J-Kidd onto the court in a wheel chair just to get him to play?

Last Glimpses of Greatness

Which brings us back to the series at hand. There's no telling how much longer the elder statesmen of the Lakers and the Mavericks will be physically and mentally capable of championship-caliber performances like the ones that fans and pundits have come to admire and respect them for.

Seven-footers tend to break down much more quickly under the stress of vigorous activity—even softies like Nowitzki and Gasol. Guards like Kobe and Kidd have managed to stay relevant by adjusting their games to better fit the reality of their eroding agility and athleticism, though there's only so much even the greatest players can do before Father Time and Mother Nature conspire against their tattered bodies.

Not that doom and gloom is at all imminent for either franchise. Kobe and Pau should go strong at least until their contracts expire in 2014. Dirk has managed to avoid serious injury for most of his career, and Kidd's game at this point doesn't require the kind of physical exertion that it once did, particularly during his years in Phoenix and New Jersey.

Nonetheless, the window of opportunity for these two teams won't open up any wider lest their respective front offices find creative ways to acquire draft picks or pick up high-profile free agents amidst what will likely be a squeezed market once a new collective bargaining agreement has been reached.

And even if Mitch Kupchak and Donnie Nelson manage to revamp their teams to remain competitive for years to come, there's no easy way to replace Hall-of-Famers like Kobe or Kidd or Nowitzki, or at least fill in for the production they will look fondly back upon in a few short years.

So, with that in mind, I say to fans in LA, Dallas and, well, everywhere else: Enjoy this series while it lasts, because, sad as it is to say, the greatness of the great players partaking in this particular tango is fading, and so will the title hopes of their famed franchises in the years to come as up-and-comers like the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Memphis Grizzlies seek to succeed them in the Western Conference.