lol comparing Blazers and Spurs to LA
Lakers are a different beast boss......
Their length will be used against them against Phoenix. They will be forced to guard the perimeter which will open things and expose them more to the Suns than any other team. The Suns are quicker as well and I think the 7 footers will find it hard to get back quickly all the time. You can't beat the Lakers in the half court. You have to run against them.
I am guessing the Lakers are aware of this.
LA's offense will be predicated with defense in mind, i.e. eschewing shots that tend to end up starting fastbreaks when they miss (like corner 3s).
As has been pointed out here about 183 times already, Lakers led the league in 3pt defense this season. A large part of that is because the Lakers big guys do defend the 3pt line well (for bigs).
Phoenix is going to have to execute a half-court offense against an outstanding defense. Not saying they can't do it, Nash/Stoud PNR is pretty great and Fisher ain't exactly known for his a en in getting around screens.
But I still like the Lakers' chances.
I'll stick with my thought. The Suns can play 5 guys that are threats simultaneously and you can't stop everyone. They are unguardable. The head of the snake (Nash) doesn't have to put much energy on defense with Fisher out there. But if the Lakers bigs have to guard the 3 point line, their length will be useless as they won't be able to challenge as many shots around the rim. Yes I think the suns will get a lot of points in the paint with the Lakers bigs spread out. And Frye's defense is underrated. He has more than held his own against Duncan. I'm so looking forward to this series. I think it is evenly matched. The Suns team is not the same team we saw earlier this year. I guess Gentry took some time to develop the bench and Amare needed to get more explosive again.
I'm not sure if Frye's D is underrated or if Duncan was just out of gas, but it'll be a completely different story with Bynum because of weight difference, the only hope is Lopez comes back, Bynum still is a lot bigger than him but the advantage isn't as huge. My big worry for the series is offensive rebounding for LA.
Lakers aren't as good as their record showed, or their playoff success has shown. They have gotten very lucky, many times, by winning with buzzer beaters. They went up 3-2 on OKC w/ a Buzzer beater. Imagine if OKC went back to OKC for game 6, up 3-2?
They also won ~10 games by buzzer beaters in reg. season. That's not domination, that's not pure talent or skill, that's luck.
The same goes for Bynum defensively. Who is Bynum going to cover? If he's guarding Amare, expect Amare to dominate with that pick and roll.
Wow, so many factual errors to point out, so little time...
Will be Bynum on Amar'e and Bynum has defended him well in the past. About the only thing he doesn't do well is contest Stoudemire's jumpers but the Lakers will gladly live with a jumpshooting Amar'e. Plays right into their hands.
Bynum also has had some big offensive games against Amar'e... he's just too big. I suppose the Suns could cross match but pick your poison -- Gasol's too big for him, too.
LOL some posters here are acting like LA doesnt match up well with PHX or some ..Believe it or not but Fisher actually looks like a legit PG vs them for some reason...Bynum ALWAYS owns them for some reason too, he just likes going against their players I guess.
If you are talking about about earlier in the season, Amare is not the same player as he is now. Much more explosive. If Bynum doesn't show on the picks, Nash will be hitting those 3's. That's what makes the Suns so hard to guard is they can hurt you in many ways and it's impossible to shut off all the options. Ginobili called it demoralizing to guard the Suns. And the suns are so used to helping out on defense with their great scramble defense to hide poor individual defenders.
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