<div class="quote_poster">Quoting *Scotch:</div><div class="quote_post">First,Tim Thomas has been scoring and rebounding like this ever since we acquired him. </div> The scoring was expected, but you're wrong about the rebounding. I double checked Tim Thomas gamelog since he joined Phoenix. He never grabbed double digits in any of the games, and his highest rebounding total was 9, he did that only once. This game he grabbed 15, which is more than three times his average. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting *Scotch:</div><div class="quote_post"> Second, You guys are missing the point with the Suns, we have a player outside of Nash and Marion that steps up and scores big every night. We score the most points in the NBA, how do you think we do it? Maybe next game House will drop 25 or Jones or Diaw or Barbosa. We don't need Thomas to tear it up every night, we will find the hot hand and abuse it.</div> Agreed. This is a concern as well for the Lakers. Eddie House worries me in this series the most. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting *Scotch:</div><div class="quote_post"> Third, In the three games Nash played this season Kobe averaged 42.3 pts. He even blew up for 51 in one game. Furthermore Lamar Odom had a double-double in everyone of those games; and each game the Lakers lost.</div> Which is why the Lakers altered their game plan in this game. Kobe scoring 40 or 50 points resulted in double digit Laker losses. Last night playing with a balanced attack they only lost by 5, and it took some clutch shooting by Nash to win the game. Lakers definitely have some confidence after barely losing Game 1. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting *Scotch:</div><div class="quote_post"> Lastly, the Suns have a million reason why they finished the season playing .500 ball. However, we had the Amare incident and we rested players on multiple nights. We finished 12-8 with all those distractions, you guys finished 13-7 with the team you are playing with right now. I think everyone drank the ESPN kool-aid and began to believe that the 54 wins that the Suns accomplished was just a fluke and this huge upset was predicted.</div> Lakers played without Chris Mihm for their last 17 games. He was the second most consistent player right before he twisted his ankle. So the Lakers actually didn't play with the same team. I agree the Amare comeback was a huge distraction for the Suns. A 54 win season was no fluke, Phoenix is a great team.
From reading the posts it sounds like Laker fans think that they lost with Phoenix playing their best possible game and LAL playing their worst possible game but I don't think thats true at all. The Suns had Diaw, Jones, House, and Bell all playing pretty poorly. Sure, Tim Thomas had a good game but with Bell, House, and Jones all getting only half of their averages its still probably less production than they would get on an average night. Nash had a good game too but in the playoffs hes very capable of getting 25 and 15 when everyone is knocking down shots. Can the Lakers expect Luke Walton to continue to score 19 ppg? Odom has been playing very well down the stretch but will he keep getting 21 and 14? Its tough to say. Kobe obviously had a down night and he didn't take many shot attempts but when he tried to get into a rhythm late he couldnt do anything. I think the Suns did contain him by closing out on him and not letting him even find a shot that he would rather take than pass the ball. Kobe will be more aggressive next game but he may not be as efficient as when Walton, Odom, Kwame, or whoever is shooting against a smaller player, the Lakers will need to find a happy medium between Kobe getting his shots and the rest of the Lakers taking advantage of mismatches.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Run BJM:</div><div class="quote_post">From reading the posts it sounds like Laker fans think that they lost with Phoenix playing their best possible game and LAL playing their worst possible game but I don't think thats true at all. The Suns had Diaw, Jones, House, and Bell all playing pretty poorly. Sure, Tim Thomas had a good game but with Bell, House, and Jones all getting only half of their averages its still probably less production than they would get on an average night. Nash had a good game too but in the playoffs hes very capable of getting 25 and 15 when everyone is knocking down shots. Can the Lakers expect Luke Walton to continue to score 19 ppg? Odom has been playing very well down the stretch but will he keep getting 21 and 14? Its tough to say. Kobe obviously had a down night and he didn't take many shot attempts but when he tried to get into a rhythm late he couldnt do anything. I think the Suns did contain him by closing out on him and not letting him even find a shot that he would rather take than pass the ball. Kobe will be more aggressive next game but he may not be as efficient as when Walton, Odom, Kwame, or whoever is shooting against a smaller player, the Lakers will need to find a happy medium between Kobe getting his shots and the rest of the Lakers taking advantage of mismatches.</div> Everyone is looking too, much at the offensive production. The problem for the Lakers isn't going to be scoring points, it's being able to step up on defense and limit the Suns to one shot. In the game the Lakers only allowed the Suns to get 5 offensive rebounds, but they hurt themselves by sending the Suns to the charity stripe 35 times. The Lakers should be able to score 100 points all series long in variety of different ways. Whether it's Luke scoring 19, or Brian Cook having a big game or Kobe going off. The key is for the Lakers is keeping the Suns under 100 points, by slowing down the tempo, playing lockdown defense, and not turning the ball over.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Run BJM:</div><div class="quote_post">Can the Lakers expect Luke Walton to continue to score 19 ppg? Odom has been playing very well down the stretch but will he keep getting 21 and 14? Its tough to say. Kobe obviously had a down night and he didn't take many shot attempts but when he tried to get into a rhythm late he couldnt do anything. I think the Suns did contain him by closing out on him and not letting him even find a shot that he would rather take than pass the ball. Kobe will be more aggressive next game but he may not be as efficient as when Walton, Odom, Kwame, or whoever is shooting against a smaller player, the Lakers will need to find a happy medium between Kobe getting his shots and the rest of the Lakers taking advantage of mismatches.</div> walton doesnt have to score 19, because usually guys like smush parker will make up for the points. last game, from what i heard, he missed a lot of open shots that he usually would have made. that was just because it was his first playoff game and nervousness is expected. as for odom? i dont think any laker fan was surprised by his numbers after game 1, after all, this is what he has been doing ever since the all star break
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Brian:</div><div class="quote_post">walton doesnt have to score 19, because usually guys like smush parker will make up for the points. last game, from what i heard, he missed a lot of open shots that he usually would have made. that was just because it was his first playoff game and nervousness is expected. as for odom? i dont think any laker fan was surprised by his numbers after game 1, after all, this is what he has been doing ever since the all star break</div> <font color="black">I dont know about Smush Parker making up for Luke's points. It's as if the guy doesnt want to be here or something. After watching the Lakers stay with the Suns and almost stealing one on the road I thought to myself, Phil is a genius! First, to able to make Kobe play within the offense the whole game was amazing. I know everyone always says it but hardly do we actually ever see it. In the first half, there were many playoff jitters among the Lakers and they missed high percentage shots. In the second half they buckled down and started punishing Phoenix down low. The amount of confidence that this one game brings to a young inexperienced Laker team is worth a 0-1 series lead. If Kobe plays a similar game, and has a hot shooting night they will take game two. I was even more impressed with the Laker defense. The rotations were fast, their defensive rebounding was great, and they were able to hold the Suns to 68 points after the first quarter. With one game played the Lakers should come out better at the start and keep Phoenix under 100 points. I'll still take the Lakers in 6. Go <font color="purple">Lakers </font>Go! </font>
