Lakers-Suns Game Two Preview: Taste the Adjustments!

I agree completely , I really didn’t see Boston winning two games on the road but you are right its best we keep up with them and get the rest we need , especially for Drew who it seems is in a worse condition than Kobe

Robin Lopez had a differential of +2 which is unheard of in a game where his team lost by 21. He needs to play more than 24 minutes for the Suns to have a chance. But the Lakers look too strong and big for anyone left in this league. VIsit us at http://bballbreakdown.com for even more basketball!

Hey, great if it happens, but I wouldn’t bet my refrigerator box on it.

Where do you hang your flat screen?

“Hopefully I can have another lucky game.”

It’s pretty cut-and-dry for the Suns. Get somebody, anybody, to defend the paint and rebound. Not taking anything at all away from the Lakers, but a team simply cannot win a playoff game if they allow 22 (by Steve Kerr’s count) drives down the middle.
PHX looked passive, and the Lakers looked relentless. They will continue to wrecklessly attack, and if PHX gets waxed in the paint again, their season will be over very quickly.

but thought grant did a decent job on kobe…a fairly high # of his were sicktastic jump shots. hill was pretty much in his grill on those. then again 40 points iz 40 points

The Suns will need some drastic changes on defense, and a little luck to beat the Lakers tonight, IMO. The Lakers were hot from the floor on Monday. The Suns will need them to come off their hot streak to have a chance. Also, they’ll probably need to move to a zone, like you said, and hope the Lakers can’t cope with it. Although, I’m pretty sure Kobe and Co. will have no problem shredding the zone once they figure out a gameplan for it.

The Suns defense is still the Suns defense. The Lakers could very easily win by 20+ again tonight if they are on…and 10+ if they aren’t.

Great write-up as per usual. My favorite part was:

Phoenix simply isn’t stocked with skilled individual defenders. They don’t have the speed to stay in front of guys. They don’t have the strength to push opponents out of their comfort spots. They don’t have the length to bother shooters. And frankly, they don’t play with the orneriness that could make up for some of these physical shortcomings.

If it weren’t for all that their defense would be about average.

No rebounding + Kobe going off + not remembering how to box out = no chance.

Our “improved” defense showed up for the first few minutes then disappeared. We’re never going to be a elite defensive unit, but we’ve shown we can get stops. Can we against the Lakers?

Channing Frye has to hit 3’s. If he’s not hitting, then the entire flow of the offense is shot.

Your team dominated ours on Monday, no doubt. I’m hoping we can return the favor tonight.

Since there is not an assigned player to box out.

So the Lakers need to take advantage of that if the Suns decide to go zone, and get some offensive boards if/when they go zone.

Laker’s O needs some good practicing against some decent defense.

I’m more concerned about if our boys still remember how to play defense. They let phoenix connect at 49% on monday (above their playoff average). That’s not acceptable if you want to win a championship.

But a douche with megalomania and horrible GM skills.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/news/story?page=lebron_week_lebron_as_GM_bucher

No team, even the one that ultimately wins this year’s championship, would turn down the chance to get reigning two-time MVP LeBron James, The Player. Aside from being the most dominant physical talent in the NBA, he is a box-office and advertising draw capable of doubling the value of a franchise.

But if getting James, The Player, means having to take on James, The GM, that’s a trickier proposition.

Unless, of course, your team would happily take what James and the Cavaliers have done for the past seven years: five playoff appearances, including one unsuccessful run to the NBA Finals. Some teams (see: the New York Knicks) no doubt would, in light of where they’ve been for the past decade. Just know that the Cavs are where they are — capped out with a modicum of trading chips — because the team power structure supposedly has looked like this: owner Dan Gilbert, GM Danny Ferry and head coach Mike Brown.

With James standing just below Gilbert and just above Ferry.

“Do you acquiesce to a superstar?” says one assistant GM. “If you’re going to let him choose his coach and decide who the No. 2 player is, that’s acquiescing in a way that hurts his franchise.”

Multiple league sources say that the Cleveland Cavaliers, in their attempt to keep James since drafting him with the No. 1 pick seven years ago, have done just that. Two opposing GMs, without citing specific examples, said they know James has vetoed deals Ferry would have made over the past few years.

Meanwhile, the acquisitions of Larry Hughes, Mo Williams, Shaquille O’Neal and Antawn Jamison all have been made at James’ behest, sources say. And whether it’s by James’ hand or the Cavaliers’, the team has been constructed on the presumption that he is Michael Jordan, a scorer and finisher, rather than Magic Johnson, a playmaker who needed a go-to closer alongside him to win titles. “They tried to make him Michael,” says one league executive. “He’s not.”

The consensus among front-office executives is that to transform James not merely into a money-making machine but a championship-producing one as well, the Cavs or any other franchise needs to hire a coach who can convince James to lose the pregame skits and develop the kind of footwork Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce have, for starters. The problem is that the coaches with the obvious pedigrees are currently employed elsewhere: Heat president Pat Riley, Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. (Charlotte Bobcats coach Larry Brown has the pedigree, but his relationship with James was forever damaged during their stint together with Team USA.)

Anyone believing the Chicago Bulls would promise James he could hire his head coach doesn’t know owner Jerry Reinsdorf or the franchise’s history during Jordan’s era. Jordan, after all, didn’t want Jackson to replace Doug Collins as head coach, despised the deal that sent his good friend Charles Oakley to the Knicks for Bill Cartwright and had legendary contempt for GM Jerry Krause.

Six rings later …

“Jerry will never, ever turn the franchise over to a player,” said one former Bull. “Ever.”

In a game at home they tried it between the latter portions of the 1st and into the 2nd quarter as well. It made the lakers settle for jumpshots and threes at the end of the shotclock. The Lakers eventually debunked it in the 2nd half by drawing more defenders towards the player with the ball, then simply finding the open man under the rim or behind the arc.

So why not see it again?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NacZzdMP4C0

Dayum.

So, literally had a day off 2day and have been watching NBA TV and ESPN all day, now watching TNT pre-game. One thing that sticks out in my mind is how LITTLE respect the Lakers have been getting from “so called” analyst. Wilbon actually said the Lakers are or have been inconsistent this post season and the Suns can get back in this! Umm…huh? How is losing only 2 games inconsistent??? Legs from espn expects Amare to dominate Lamar 2nite. And the rest of the basketball world has been all over the Celts and Lebron’s nuts the last week! C’mon Lakers!!! Time to show people this team aint no fuckin’ joke! Smoke the Suns 2nite…we’re the headliners in this league!!!

sayint that he was “all on the Suns’ bandwagon” Barkeley as always he stuttered just to reply. so funny!

that would hire him.