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Lakers did a great job closing on their 3 pt shooters
Heck, even against Dallas, our rotation was awful.
Where was that in our series???
Lakers did a great job closing on their 3 pt shooters
Heck, even against Dallas, our rotation was awful.
I don't think there's any doubt that LA played better perimeter defense than the Spurs did against the Suns.
However, PHX was hitting a fair percentage of contested 3s in that first series and simply wasn't missing on open looks. They did neither of those things last night.
thats what happens when u play home game as game 1 and game 2 and get confidence, instead of starting out on the road in a 0-2 hole. role and supporting players play better @ home, but once ur down 0-2 they will wilt anyways.
Suns made an obnoxious amount of buzzer beaters as well IIRC.
The Lakers play better D, and the Suns are intimidated by the Lakers..the majority of teams are intimidated by them, they're an elite team..
Spurs fans should know this..even when the Spurs were an elite team and played great defense, teams would still miss a lot of open looks and shrivel up against the Spurs, they were intimidated by our team..
When your team is the best and you play tough-minded basketball against soft teams, these things happen for obvious reasons..
ElNonostradumus
Yeah, I think it is just a matter of the Spurs don't scare the Suns anymore. Kind of like Dallas. The Spurs will need to kick some serious butt next year to get these two teams to hesitate and miss shots. They just don't fear the Spurs.
They do fear the Lakers.
A) Phoenix played the series of their life vs. Spurs
B) They started out in Phoenix, where their bench is great
C) Lakers D >>>>>>>>>>>> Spurs D
All of the above, of course, but esp. A. They had never played like that, even against bottom-dwellers, I think, let alone playoff teams.
I think it had a lot more to do with how Fisher was allowed to ride on top of Nash's back the ENTIRE freakin' game---
this caused Nash to become frustrated and threw off his timing and this caused the entire offense to be out of whack
the suns are a team that has to play at a certain pace ---for everyone to be comfortable and all the perimeter shooters usually get the ball from Nash at the perfect time.
just watch the game again and see how fisher was allowed to get away with murder---
don't even get me started on how grant hill was treated when it became apparent that he was defending the rapist well...
It's called physical defense and we used to play it back when we had a guy like Bowen in the team. Instead, we decided to let Steve have a layup drill and uncontested threes.
But that's been the story for us the last two seasons.
It's kind of sad that Fisher was able to defend Nash, but George Hill couldn't..yes, I realize Fisher has more help behind him, but he still did a much better job from an individual D standpoint..
George lacks the foot speed to be a good/great one on one defender. Especially against quicker guards (point guards).
I was worried about this component when he was drafted.
http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-pre-...0&pos=&sort=13
*check out how his agility amounted to the rest of his 2008 class.* (The worst of the point/combo guards in the draft and equivalent to most of the big men.)
http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-pre-...&pos=0&sort=13
/\ And compare it to the 2009 draft class
IMO Another thing that helped D-Fish defend Nash more effectively was the return of Lopez.
Suns were unable to give Nash the same amount of spacing as they had against the Spurs because the majority of Frye's 20 minutes came with Dragic running point last night. At the same time Robin Lopez, Collins' replacement in the rotation, saw twice as many minutes as Collins ever did in a game against the Spurs.
Nash playing more minutes with Amare/Lopez oppose to Amare/Frye worked against the efficiency of the Nash/Amare pick and roll because the defender of Lopez was not only closer to help on the pick and roll but also had less responsibility being cautious of running out to the 3 point line. At the same time,this also caused spacing problems for the Suns getting efficient looks in the paint as Lopez's man was brought closer to the basket.
IMO Suns need Frye in the game with Nash and Amare to keep the Lakers defense honest against the Suns best weapon ( the Nash/Amare pick and roll). And they should bring Lopez in with the 2nd unit.
IMO Fisher had less ground to cover because of this spacing issue, which assisted in his effective defense on Nash.
Last edited by MaNu4Tres; 05-18-2010 at 06:28 PM.
No doubt Lakers did better job than Spurs but The Sund still missed alot of open looks - bottom line the Suns 2nd unit collectively had a series shooting wise they will probably never repeat
As far as Hill's D on Nash - I think experience is huge - most good defenders go all the way through college just relying on physical tools (athleticism and freak wing span) in the NBA even the 2nd tier stars will torch a inexperienced and unprepared defender - Bowen talked all the time about how defense was mental and the film/scout prep that went into preparing for star players especially in a playoff series - Hill will get better at defending smaller quicker guards just a matter of maturity more than any physical handicap
I agree that it had a part in it, but Nash also torched Hill in the opening of games when Collins was in the game..he hasn't been able to stay with him all year..
I remember the report on Hill in regards to his speed, but my expectations of his D came from last year..he did a much better job on the defensive end in 2008/2009..the added offensive responsibility probably had a small part in his decline this year..
I agree with Nash torching Hill to start Game 1 (not every game) with Collins in the game, but that didn't have to do with spacing. IMO In game one Hill played too close to Nash, where a simple jab step would give Nash two steps on Hill when he then penetrated in the lane. (Exploiting Hill's lack of foot speed.)
And Collins would only play 5-6 minutes of the 1st quarter and would only see the floor again at the start of the 3rd for 4-5 minutes. Frye still played half of the 1st and 3rd quarters as well as late the 2nd/4th quarters with Nash. Which only helped the effectiveness of Nash and Amare's pick and roll the 2nd half of the 1st and 3rd quarters. That wasn't the case last night as Lopez ate most of those minutes.
I do agree with you about how Hill's increased responsibility on offense may have hindered his defensive ability. But IMO he's never had Bruce or even Tony's foot speed to guard the quicker guards as effectively as many believe.
I think in the Spurs-Suns series,we were a little bit unlucky.Where was that in our series???
Irrelevant really. They still put 107 on the board, much like they did against us.Where was that in our series???
I was surprised the Spurs got past Dallas but I'm not surprised the Lakers held PHX down in Game 1. PHX may be the best 3-pt shooting team in the league but the Lakers are the best Opp 3-pt% team in the NBA with a stingy .328...plus they are very long defenders.
Two men - Lamar Odom and Ron Artest
The physicality of the lakers and length was the difference. At least what we saw in the first game.
NAsh was out of sync just because he did not get what he wanted of the screens the suns had. Fisher fight over the screen and LA were able to close Nash from passing the ball as well as protected the rim good.
The spurs let the suns dictate what they wanted. Suns wanted to have a mismatch they created that with ease. Spurs were switching most of the picks and that created the hole in other area for the spurs.
Also LA triangle is less fitting to defend by the Suns then our p&r offense which was horrible against PHX this years series
LOL...plain and simple. Kobe happened to them.
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