Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Best of 7) Per 100 possessions Best Chris Paul season: 32.3 points per game, 59.9 True Shooting percentage, 15.6 assists per game, 4.26 turnovers. Deron's best season: 25.95 points per game, 59.5 true shooting percentage, 14.5 assists per game, 4.7 turnovers. Defensively: Deron gives up 16.5 PER, Chris defends at 15.2 PER Chris is clearly more dominant. Although Chris is certainly worse defensively than LeBron, elite post defenders, etc. , but better than Deron.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Best of 7) Wow I completely forgot about Dragic. Yeah he has looked good recently too. Channing Frye, Barbosa, etc. can also be annoying. They certainly have a better bench.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Best of 7) Frye - Barbosa - Dragic - Dudley That's a deadly bench. Along with Nash-Richardson-Hill-Amare-Lopez starting. If we play to our strengths, we should be fine. But they certainly have the firepower to make this a very long, tough series.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Best of 7) I feel like we shouldn't experiment with Andrew too much. He's in pain get Odom some burn if the kid is off.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Best of 7) the suns have gotten to tis point because the spurs hobbled around like a bunch of granpa's, watching them put up 3-pointer after 3-pointer. lakers have length. lakers, when they actually give a damn, can defend the perimeter. i still think okc will be our toughest challange these whole playoffs. jrich, nash and the other shooters on thier squad will try to do what westbrook and durant were doing to us. its how they won against the spurs. get artet on jrich/dudley, odom can follow frye all day in his face, kobe can definately stop barbosa, no doubt, i mean even shannon could keep up with him so he is not a factor. this series will come down to how well nash plays, but more importantly, who wins the battle down low. Bynum and Ama're are going head to head, but bynum has much more help on rebounds, he has the height, and ama're at times is a terrible defender. if ama're cn play through all of that, which i think he may be capable of doing, then the suns may still have a chance, but still not a very good one. they are a scoring team, but we are better. kobe over jrich and nash, pau and bynum over ama're and frye, ron over dudley and dragic. no matter what we still score more than they do when matched up against each other. we are top of the west for a reason, and i think its going to stay that way.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Best of 7) I don't know why people on ESPN keep bringing up the fact that three of the games we played against the Suns were early in the season. I'm not sure if people remember, but the Suns started off the season hot (no pun intended) and were one of the best teams in the NBA out of the gate. Anyways, I took Lakers in 6. I think the Suns will take a couple from us because they'll end up shooting the lights out from the arc. However, I think we have too much length and size down low for them to contend with. If Bynum is right (or at least close to it), no one on that team will be able to guard him. Beyond that, Gasol will have his way against Amar'e and his horrible defensive self, and Odom shouldn't have any issues with Frye or Amar'e guarding him either. Oh yea, and who's going to stop Kobe? Last I knew, they didn't have that defensive stopper out on the perimeter anymore. They may be better now than what they were early in the year, but they're still not good enough to beat us. They simply don't have the length to contend with all the big guys we can throw at them. As long as we take advantage of that and defend the 3 point line decently, the Suns won't win this series.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Best of 7) Richardson isn't going to know what hit him once Artest gets up on that ass defensively. Frye is either going to have to guard Bynum or Gasol. Straight advantage there for the Lakers offensively. This might be an issue come defensively, though. Oh, I'm salivating. I think Lakers in 5.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Best of 7) Lakers in 5. Can someone tell me why we have to wait until Monday for this series to start?
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Best of 7) I hate the NBA playoff schedule. This is why the NBA will never be a ratings king again. I mean for fuck's sake, the NFL draft blew away the NBA playoffs this year. This year seems like the breaks have been extra long, though. W/e, I'm not going to complain. The time off may accumulate a little rust, but it's good for Kobe.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Best of 7) I want to say Lakers in 5 but seeing how hot the Suns are, I'll make a prediction of LA in 6.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Best of 7) they have to keep the East and West series as close to the same time schedule as possible so when the Finals role around one conference champ isnt sitting around waiting on the other for weeks. For example, and this is a worst case scenario, but lets say the WCF started tomorrow and the Lakers swept the Suns. That series would end next Tuesday, the 18th, if they played every other night. Meanwhile in the east the Cavs and Celts go 7 games and they dont finish their series until Saturday. The ECF could then only start on Monday at the earliest, one day before the Lakers completed a sweep of the Suns. Then lets say the ECF go 7 games. If the Cavs and Magic played every other night that series wouldnt end until Saturday the 29th. The Finals couldn't start until May 31. That would be nearly 2 weeks off for the Lakers in this worst case scenario lol. I know thats alot to follow but thats what I've come up with....... but it does seem like the NBA could manage the schedule a little bit better even if all of this is true.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Best of 7) He usually does in the playoffs against the suns, but that was against Marion. He should actually do better if he's matched up with Frye.
Re: WCF: Lakers vs. Suns (Best of 7) Odom has been more wishy-washy this year than in years past, IMO. W/e, all is good if we win it all. He should be able to handle Phoenix rather easily. He could be the perfect answer for Frye.
