<table class="gamePreview"> <tbody> <tr> <td class="center" colspan="2">November 3rd, 2007 @ 10:30pm EST US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ ESPN, Fox Sports Arizona and KCAL</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="center"> Phoenix Suns (1-0)</p> </td> <td class="center"> Los Angeles Lakers (0-1)</p> </td> </tr> <tr class="sectHeader"> <td colspan="2"> <h4>Projected Lineup</h4> </td> </tr> <tr class="roster"> <td> Nash #13 - Bell #19</p> Hill #33 - Stoudemire #1 - Marion #31</p> </td> <td> Fisher #2 - Bryant #24</p> Walton #4 - Brown #54 - Turiaf #21</p> </td> </tr> <tr class="sectHeader"> <td colspan="2"> <h4>Season Stats</h4> </td> </tr> <tr class="seasonStats"> <td> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td class="strong">Scoring</td> <td>112.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="strong">Field Goal %</td> <td>42.1%</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="strong">3-Point %</td> <td>25.0%</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="strong">Rebounds</td> <td>37.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="strong">Assists</td> <td>18.0</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> <td> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td class="strong">Scoring</td> <td>106.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="strong">Field Goal %</td> <td>50.0%</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="strong">3-Point %</td> <td>33.3%</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="strong">Rebounds</td> <td>44.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="strong">Assists</td> <td>31.0</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> </tr> <tr class="sectHeader"> <td colspan="2"> <h4>Team Leaders</h4> </td> </tr> <tr class="seasonStats"> <td> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td class="strong">Bryant</td> <td>Bryant 45.0 PPG</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="strong">Bryant</td> <td>Bryant 8.0 RPG</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="strong">Bryant</td> <td>Bryant 4.0 APG</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> <td> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td class="strong">Stoudemire</td> <td>Stoudemire 23.0 PPG</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="strong">Stoudemire</td> <td>Stoudemire 11.0 RPG</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="strong">Nash</td> <td>Nash 12.0 APG</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> </tr> <tr class="sectHeader"> <td colspan="2"> <h4>Key Matchups</h4> </td> </tr> <tr class="keyMatchups"> <td> The Phoenix Suns love to get their offense started by running it through Amare Stoudemire in the post. It's going to be Kwame's responsibility to defend Amare and disrupt the Suns plan of attack. Kwame has the strength and quickness to give Amare trouble, but he cannot pick up early fouls by being lazy with his feet. The Suns will run the pick and roll all night long against the Lakers when they need a bucket. It usually results in Amare flying in for a dunk or Nash shooting a wide open jumpshot. Kwame has to process quickly and commit to the decision he makes when the Suns get him involved in the pick and roll. Same goes for Mihm and Bynum when they check in the game. Kwame is also going to need to score and make wide open shots when Phoenix looks to double team off of him. Two years ago Kwame was having a breakout series in the playoffs against Phoenix. We all know he's capable of being a threat on offense when he focuses and goes to the rim strong. When he tries to finesse his shots he struggles and loses confidence in his game.</td> <td> Amare had a tougher than expected game last night against the Sonics. He found himself in early foul trouble and was getting backed under the rim by Chris Wilcox. He's been the catalyst for Phoenix and when Amare has a monster game, Phoenix usually wins in a blowout. When Amare can collapse a defense it opens the spacing for Phoenix to bomb away from behind the arc. It also opens up the driving lanes for Marion to sneak in behind the defense and score alley oops or putbacks. The Suns have some size off the bench in Skinner in case Amare gets into foul trouble again, but Phoenix becomes a one-dimensional team when Amare is sidelined.</td> </tr> <tr class="sectHeader"> <td colspan="2"> <h4>Keys to the Game</h4> </td> </tr> <tr class="keyStrategy"> <td> <ul>[*]Unleash Kobe - Kobe Bryant is averaging 36 points per game against the Phoenix Suns the past two seasons. He needs to set the tempo for his teammates by attacking the rim, getting to the line, and attacking the rim some more. Raja Bell isn't playing at 100% and last night I saw Damien Wilkins work him on the offensive end. Wilkins was doing whatever he wanted on the court with Raja hanging on him. The new aero-dynamic Kobe should have no problem getting by Raja and penetrating into the painted area. Kobe for 50 tonight! [*]Close Out on the 3 Pointers - This is always going to be a key for the Lakers until they prove to me they can hold onto the rock. With Kobe attacking the Suns are going to pack in the defense and shadow Kobe Bryant with Marion. If the Laker players stand around and watch, Kobe is going to get stripped of the ball, so it's going to be important for whoever Marion is guarding to rotate and make himself available for the pass from Kobe. A lot of times Kobe is looking to pass when the double team comes, but the player cutting isn't giving him the right angles. I suspect Marion will be guarding Turiaf, so Ronny needs to slash and when Amare rotates over dish it to Kwame for the flush. The Lakers have to attack the middle of the court all night long and continue to move without the basketball and force Phoenix to scramble on defense. [*]Close Out on the 3-PointersPhoenix loves to shoot the 3 pointer and are very effective from long distance. The Lakers have to be aware of Bell and Marion setting up in the corner, and Barbosa at the top of the key when the Suns get out and run. They have to realize it's better to give up two points instead of allowing Phoenix to get hot from 3 point land and score 9 straight points on you within 2 minutes. We've seen this too, many times when these two teams match up.[/list] </td> <td> <ul>[*]Run, Run, Run Phoenix is at their best when they can speed up the game and create mini-fastbreaks against their opponents. It's important from them to rebound the defensive glass, get the outlet pass out quickly, and then sprint down the court for Nash to have option A, B, and C on the break. Lakers are still struggling to get back in transition and without Odom on the court, the team speed is a lot slower. Last night Nash took advantage every time Earl Watson went in for a layup. He would allow Watson to go by him and into Amare, and then Nash would get up the court and Watson had no chance to recover. Fisher has been attacking the basket a lot in pre-season and in game one, so Nash should see a lot of those same opportunities. [*]Nash the Passer Interesting comments on the radio today by Derek Fisher on defending Steve Nash. He said he'll be doing his job if Nash scores 30 points on him and only has 5 assists, versus Nash having 15 assists and 10 points. Nash is deadliest when he gets everyone else involved even though he can score anytime he wants. The Suns will have to protect Nash tonight when Fisher gets physical with him on both ends and must communicate with Nash when the Laker bigs come out and try to set a stiff screen on him. [*]Lot's of Barbosa Leandrino is the Laker killer. He's been the difference maker every time Phoenix beats the Lakers. The Lakers still don't have anyone who can match his speed and with the home opener tonight in Phoenix the fans will get into the game when Barbosa gets into that scoring zone. In the first game, Mike James came off the bench for Houston and had his way with the Lakers second unit. Barbosa is better than James and quicker, so he should see a lot of playing time tonight.[/list] </td> </tr> <tr class="sectHeader"> <td colspan="2"> <h4>Prediction</h4> </td> </tr> <tr class="prediction"> <td colspan="2">Phoenix is coming off a surprisingly tough game last night against the Sonics. It's always tough to play in back to back games and the Lakers have had plenty of time to come up with a game plan with two days rest. The problem is Phoenix is great at seducing teams to play their style of basketball and then the game plan gets thrown out the window. Phoenix will have the adrenaline going at home and the fact the Lakers are in town. Without Odom out there to defend Marion I don't think the Lakers have much of a chance. The Suns are just to athletic and quick to the ball with Marion, Amare, and now Grant Hill on the floor at the same time. Whoever Walton is guarding is an automatic mismatch in favor of Phoenix and the only athlete off the bench to sub in for Luke at the forward position is undersized Mo Evans.</td> </tr> <tr class="sectHeader"> <td colspan="2"> <h4>Randoms</h4> Taking it back to this memorable moment.</p> VIDEO FOOTAGE</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
anyway i hope the suns still have some of that rust from the soncis game... if the sonics can give the suns a run for their moeny then we certainly can beat them</p>
The only way I see the Lakers winning this game is if they play some defense as a team. The key IMO is to stop Nash, and if they do, everything else falls apart for the Suns.</p>
According to DFish everyone has moved on from the Kobe talk as far as Kobe and his teammates go. He admitted the practices have been tense, but starting on Monday the chemistry is improving and everyone is focused on the team and the fact Kobe is sticking around. Kobe is committed to the Lakers and his teammates. "It's time to move on."</p> Fisher also said the first game the team struggled to find a rhythm on offense because they hadn't practiced with Kobe for 10 straight days. They weren't used to playing with him out on the court, but he expects a better showing and more balanced effort tonight since the team has Kobe back in practice.</p> The Lakers are not going to have any more Kobe trade discussions anymore. Maybe that resurfaces during the trade deadline if the Lakers are still struggling, but for now it's back to business with employee #24.</p> I'd love the Lakers to win tonight, but they're up against the wall without Odom. This is a bad matchup for them without Lamar in the lineup, but I just want to see them play with some heart and stay competitive. Phoenix is the more talented team, but the Lakers can give themselves a chance to win this game by playing with a lot of passion and keeping up the intensity for all 4 quarters. The Sonics won 3 out of 4 quarters last night against the Suns, but unfortunately the quarter they lost was the final one. Phoenix has a lot of weaknesses the Lakers can exploit, so they need to execute the game plan and stay disciplined on both ends of the court.</p> </p>
I got Marion on my fantasy, i hope he drops 120 points, 30 assists, 20 rebounds, and 15 blocks pew pew! j/k, hope the lakers win, hope marion has some decent stats before he loses.
Nice YourChef! I also hav the Matrix on my team so I'm hoping he has a monster game (I'm sure he will), but in a losing cause. Fantasy basketball really tests one's loyalties to their team doesn't it? LOL.</p> </p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><span class="vitstorybody"><span class="vitstorybody"> This will be the Suns' home opener tonight. They have eliminated the Lakers from the playoffs the past two years in the first round.</p> "They are a team that really gets under our skin, in terms of knocking us out of the playoffs the last two years," Bryant said. <font size="5">"So, we're going to go in there ready to play with a chip on our shoulder and see if we can't do some damage."</font></div></p> Feelin' you KOBE!</p> </span></span></p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> Records: Lakers 0-1; Suns 1-0 Offensive ratings: Lakers 96.1; Suns 99.5 Defensive ratings: Lakers 100.4; Suns 87.9 Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Luke Walton, Ronny Turiaf, Kwame Brown; Suns: Steve Nash, Raja Bell, Grant Hill, Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire.</p> Lakers Notes: It was the Lakers offense that looked out of sorts in the season opener, but remember that was against the best defensive team in the NBA last year and a team with two of the best shot-blocking centers in the league patrolling the paint. They make a lot of teams look awkward. The question is how do the Lakers come out and respond tonight — and do other Lakers step up early so Kobe doesn’t feel he has to take over the game single-handedly.</p> One thing the Lakers did much better than in the past against Houston is defend the pick-and-roll. The bigs showed out — meaning they stepped out on the small guard and forced him away from the basket — then the rotations and recovery behind them were good. It was the best we’ve seen the Lakers defend that in a long time.</p> Which is good, they are going to see a lot of it from the Suns. Like every trip down.</p> The Suns Coming In: Tonight will be the second game of a back-to-back for the Suns, with travel in between as well. Last night the Suns looked very rusty for three quarters but pulled it together for a very Suns-like 12 minutes at the end and knocked off the Sonics 106-99.</p> It was the Suns Bench that led the way back — Phoenix started its run with a lineup of Marcus Banks, Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw along with Amare Stoudemie and Grant Hill. Barbosa led the way with a +8 for the Suns, but the bigger shock to me was the Marcus Banks looked much more confident and comfortable in the system than he did last year. It should be noted that only seven Suns played significant times.</p> Most of what I saw was a very sloppy Suns defense (which in turn was hurting their fast break), with Amare getting in first quarter foul trouble and unusually slowness from Marion (something I think he will not do two nights in a row).</p> But offensively there was no great new wrinkle — it’s the break and then the pick-and-roll, and the wisdom of Steve Nash running the show. Grant Hill still seemed to be finding his way, spending more time than he should hanging out at the three point line for spot ups. We’ll see if he adjusts for tonight’s game.</p> For more Suns background, check out Phoenix Suns Rising.</p> Keys To The Game: Most teams struggle with the Suns because their style of play is an anomaly in the season. After seeing somewhat similar offenses for a month, in come the run-and-gun Suns, and with the grind of the NBA season there is little chance to really prepare for what is coming, and before they know it teams get swept up in the style.</p> The Lakers are different — after two consecutive years of playoff series against the Suns, the Lakers know how to defend and play the Suns. The basics are pretty simple — pound the ball inside, pound the glass and make Nash a shooter and not a distributor — but are easier said than done against such an athletic lineup.</p> Tonight a lot of the Lakers success will be on the Bigs — can the deep Lakers rotation take advantage of the smaller and shallower Suns lineup. The Sonics were able to get Stoudemire in foul trouble last night (Amare averaged 4.4 fouls per 40 minutes last season) and the drop-off from him to Brian Skinner is pretty far. The Lakers can run a lot of guys — Kwame, Bynum, Turiaf, Mihm, Radmanovic — at the Suns, but those Lakers need to have a good night for it to work.</p> If the Lakers are grabbing a lot of offensive rebounds, it’s a good sign. Making Nash shoot a lot would also be good, although he certainly can score (he had a good shooting fourth for the Suns last night). But a Nash shot is less dangerous than a Marion dunk, so make the Canadian shoot.</p> One other key — can Farmar and the rest of the second unit keep Barbosa from tearing them up. He killed them in the playoffs last year.</p> Thoughts/Prediction: This is the best situation the Lakers can hope to catch the Suns in — it’s a back-to-back with travel for them, so their legs shouldn’t be as fresh. That said, as it is the Suns home opener, they will be pumped.</p> I might have predicted a Lakers upset if Odom were healthy — Marion just can’t handle him on the block and Odom may have been the best player on either team in last spring’s playoff series. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Lakers win, but the Suns have beaten the Lakers in eight of the last 10 regular season meetings, so I’ll say the Suns 103-99.</p> Where you can watch my prediction go up in flames: Game time is 7:30 p.m. (Pacific). In Los Angeles tune into KCAL (9), nationally you get ESPN, and online check out the NBA.com scoreboard page.</div></p> Source: Forum Blue & Gold Blog</p>
According to Kurt from ForumBlueandGold, he's pegged Jordan Farmar as the player responsible to keep Barbosa in check. I'm not really comfortable with this matchup and was hoping Kobe Bryant would do Barbosa up like he did in the FIBA tournament. I'd actually wouldn't mind seeing what JCritt can do against this Phoenix team.</p> Also something to note about Phoenix, Marcus Banks can shoot now. He was draining 3's last night in the Sonics game and looked very comfortable letting them fly. When he's in the game with Barbosa and Diaw is quarterbacking the Suns offense, they give the Lakers a lot of fits. Keep an eye on the game when the Suns use this rotation.</p>
More game notes from Lakers.com</p> <span style="font-weight: bold;">GAME NOTES</span> SEASON & SERIES NOTES; CONNECTIONS The Lakers defeated Phoenix on opening night last season at STAPLES Center but subsequently dropped their next three meetings, losing the season series with Phoenix for the third straight season. The Lakers are now 2-10 against the Suns since the 2004-05 season after not having lost a series to the Suns since 1994-95 season (1-4). The Lakers and Suns have met 201 times with Los Angeles leading the all-time series 116-85. The Lakers are 5-5 in their last 10 regular season games against the Suns at STAPLES Center while going 3-7 in their last 10 regular season games at Phoenix. Under head coach Phil Jackson, the Lakers are 17-11 against the Suns. In 37 career games against the Suns including 31 starts, Kobe Bryant is averaging 24.7 points (915). In three games against the Suns last season, Bryant averaged 27.3 points while in four games in 2005-06 against Phoenix, Bryant averaged 42.5 points. On opening night last season, Lamar Odom scored a career-high tying 34 points while adding 13 rebounds and 6 assists. In 21 games (21 starts) against Phoenix, Odom is averaging 18.0 points, 10.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists. While the Lakers have opened their home schedule against the Suns six times (three meetings on opening night) and gone 3-3 in those games, they have only opened their road schedule once against Phoenix. In that game, the Lakers defeated the Suns 103-99 11/1/03 at America West Arena.</p> ROAD OPENERS Since moving to Los Angeles prior to the 1960-61 season, the Lakers are 31-16 in ROAD OPENERS (first road game of the year) after last season’s November 1 victory at Golden State. In their last 12 road openers, the Lakers are 9-3, 3-2 in their last five. While the Lakers have opened their home schedule against the Suns six times (three meetings on opening night) and gone 3-3 in those games, they have only opened their road schedule once against Phoenix. In that game, the Lakers defeated the Suns 103-99 11/1/03 at America West Arena.</p> 40-POINT GAMES On opening night, Kobe Bryant scored 45 points (86th career 40-point game), including a career-high 27 free throw attempts (the most attempts ever by a player on opening night). In the history of the NBA, only three players have more career 40-point games: Wilt Chamberlain (271), Michael Jordan (173) and Elgin Baylor (88).</p> TOUGH TEST EARLY The Lakers will open the 2007-08 season with seven of their first nine games coming against playoff teams from last year (facing Houston twice). Of the Rockets, Suns, Jazz, Spurs, Pistons and Bulls, only Houston failed to advance beyond the first round of the 2007 NBA Playoffs while the six teams combined finished with regular season record of 324-168 (.659) a year ago.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (shapecity)</div><div class='quotemain'> Nice YourChef! I also hav the Matrix on my team so I'm hoping he has a monster game (I'm sure he will), but in a losing cause. Fantasy basketball really tests one's loyalties to their team doesn't it? LOL.</p> </p></div> </p> HAH, sure does. It also kinda lowers your dislike for other teams.
