The all-or-nothing for me, ItsMyFault is going to begin with the Suns getting some decent matchups across the board. It's painfully obvious that the Lakers are a much bigger team than the Suns, and are versatile enough to play an up-tempo game if the Suns want, and beat them at it. But I thought these Suns had an epiphany about how important it was to play defense in order to win. The postseason is about adjustments. The first adjustment that the Suns must make is in personnel. Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol are enough of a problem for Phoenix in the general course of a game. Robin Lopez can effectively counter Andrew Bynum, to me. Bynum is good, but Lopez is a seven-footer, too, and is willing to get physical and offer resistance. Lopez isn't a liability offensively, either. That matchup could potentially be a wash. Amare Stoudemire MUST play Pau Gasol more effectively. He's the only Suns big man who has a comparable skill set to Gasol. Whether he wants to or not, Stoudemire has to DEFEND and REBOUND. Period. Any chance the Suns hope to have starts and ends there. Which is why so many observers are calling the series over after two games. The Suns could match Lamar Odom with either Jared Dudley or Grant Hill, whichever of the two draws the Kobe assignment. It's not perfect, but that could potentially level the playing field a bit. Dudley and/or Hill will compete physically with Odom and/or Bryant. Doesn't mean that the Lakers aren't still better and wouldn't win anyway, but at least you give yourself a better chance to win, in my opinion. The Lakers are good enough and talented enough and versatile enough to win in anybody's gym. If the Suns think that just going back to the desert will cure what ails them...... ...well, at least they won't have far to go once the season's over.....
Didn't Powe shoot more free throws in game 2 then the entire Laker team? I'm sure without Powe, Boston would of lost game 2 in that 2008 and that would of been a huge difference in that series.
I doubt they would have lost without Powe. They were blowing the Lakers out in that game and just got lackadasical-- the game wasn't nearly as close as the final score. The Lakers have a tendency to let scrubs go off, so if it wasn't Powe it would have been Davis or someone else. Expect Tony Allen or Finley to have a huge game this year if they meet. And Powe shot more FTs than the Lakers because the Lakers, despite all of their size, are soft as hell. I hate when people just look at the box score and make a judgment from that. If a team is getting jobbed, point out the calls.
I agree w your conclusion that the Suns' only option is to outscore Lakers. If I were coaching the Suns, i would start Dragic along side Nash in the back court, to speed up the pace even more, all game long. there is a chance that the Lakers may not be able to keep up the pace
You can still try an outscore a team when you push up the tempo. They won 60 games in 05 because they did that... obviously they can't play defense... but at this point, even if they tried hard on defense, it would just take away from their offense. They have to focus more on their offense.
Did you really watch that game? That game was competitive until the final minutes when PP got 2 bogus FT. If the FT disparity was anywhere less than 17FT, it would be totally different.
You can't up the tempo if you can't secure enough rebounds or cause more TO. Plus, if Lakers keep shooting well, it's also harder to run after a score. Even if Lakers couldn't find their shot, they can slow down the tempo just by milking the clock and forcing the shots inside. They were able to do that in 06,07, they'd be able to do it now.
The game was a blowout until the middle of the 4th when the Lakers made a furious comeback. If the Lakers wanted more FTs maybe they should have attacked the paint instead of jacking up threes and fadeaways (Kobe's specialty, 'tho you wouldn't know it based on all the crying he does). Faker fans crying about the refs is hilarious, considering you guys have been gifted at least two championships thanks to Bavetta & co.
The Suns are able to rebound at times, and yes it does take TOs to create a fast break (and they have done that, but not enough). Just because the Lakers slow down the tempo doesn't mean the Suns have to follow... I don't think you get how fast breaking really works. I don't think you watched the Rockets very much this season, but it wouldn't surprise me if you did since you have your head so far up Kobe's ass. As a fellow Kobe fan, I think you over did it.
lol from Bill Simmon's twitter: I'm sure he was probably in NYC for a friend's party or something, but I still found that hilarious.
gasol and odom are dominating down low.... the suns just dont have enough firepower to match with the lakers lakers sweep
<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/onMmqgR-qko&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/onMmqgR-qko&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object> This kid is a national hero
Who knew Robin would be such a good player? How dare the NBA schedule this game on LOST series finale night! DVR GO!
