LAKERS -at- SUNS - 2/20 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

[DancingBarry]

The Old West... An electric crowd gathered in Phoenix for Shaq's debut against the young guns from Los Angeles. Like a classic Western flick, the two teams exchanged gun fire until only one stood standing. The Lakers came into town, took the win, the season series, and for the moment...the lead in the Pacific Division.

Not only did the game remind you of a Western shootout, it reminded you of the old Western Conference with the 130-124 final score and high-octane pace. Great game to watch.

The Suns had the size advantage and it caused us some problems on second chances and offensive boards. When Bynum gets added to the mix, you are going to have some great battles in the paint.

Without Bynum, our Gasol and Odom frontline scrapped, fought and finessed for everything. They held the line. Despite the current size issues, the Suns were smart to keep the ball in Nash's hands and rarely dump it into to Shaq against us. They'll be more effective against us in that manner.

Even though the Suns had all their guns and lost, don't let that fool you. We saw how moving Amare to the PF will help his game. But they didn't use Shaq like they will learn to. It's not so much what Shaq will do in the post on iso that will make the Suns a contender, it's how Steve Nash can take advantage of Shaq...and make Shaq better.

That's where they are dangerous. They barely tapped into that tonight and you will likely see that chemistry build over time. Other teams without size are going to have problems now with the Suns. A healthy Lakers team, however, will be a different beast.

For all the talk about the Suns needing to develop more chemistry...the Lakers have barely tapped into their own team chemistry. And still have another card to play against the Suns should we meet again.


Kobe -- -- An MVP-type of game from Kobe. It's so nice to be able to see Kobe running the two-man game against the Suns by working off a Gasol screen versus a Kwame two-man game with limited options. The interesting thing about this game was that we barely even tapped into it. Was that Phil not showing his full hand or the playoffs? Or was it Kobe feeling like he was going to be more effective in iso tonight? Hard to say, but we saw a lot more iso than we usually do. After a 130 points, who cares? But if we meet up again, we still have a lot more the Suns haven't even seen. The Stats: He scored 41 ppoints on 16-25 shooting (1-2 from three, 8-10 from the line) to go with 5 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 5 turnovers and 3 fouls in 46 minutes (yeah, we wanted this one). The Action: He worked the two-man game with Gasol/Shaq and Gasol scored an easy layup. Bad pass off the two-man game to Gasol and it was picked off easily. He posted up and drew a defensive tech, he made the FT. Wow, sensational help D block denying Diaw at the rim on the throwdown and saving a sure hoop (your NBA TV No. 10 play of the night). He attacked in transition and scored a layup (Amare was watching Gasol and let Kobe go). He threw a pass away when smothered near the hoop (looked like he could have hit Gasol). He faced up on Hill, stepped around him with ease and threw down a two-handed jam. He drained a wing jumper on his next attempt. He drained a pumping 18-footer with a man crowding him. He backed Barbosa down and drew the foul, he made one (his consecutive make streak ended at 51 in a row from the line). He made another illegal D tech. Nasty finish to the first quarter, he blew past Bell, rose up and threw it down with a second left (your NBA TV No. 4 play of the night). He collapsed the D and kicked to Gasol, who hit Sasha for the three. Nice back screen to free up Gasol for the alley-oop. He missed a 17-footer. He sank another iso jumper. He attacked off the dribble, drew contact and FTs, he made both. He missed a three. He missed a bank. He pushed out the break, gave it up, got it back and threw down. Quick attack from the wing on the two-for-one attempt and he earned FTs, he made one. He had 20 points on 7-11 shooting at the half. Bad kickout that went right out of bounds, he wanted the foul. He hit the runner in the lane in transition. He got stripped by Bell, then fouled him. He stepped around Ball and scored the layup. He curled off the Gasol screen, pulled up and banked the short one. He was blocked under the hoop. With the offense stalled, he drained an 18-footer over Bell. He had 28 points on 11-17 shooting after three quarters. Back in after a rest to start the fourth, he posted up and drew a foul on Strawberry, he made both FTs. He charged trying to iso and clear out with his off hand. He pulled up off the dribble and hit the elbow jumper. He sank a three on iso. He missed a long wing jumper. He was called for a goaltend on Shaq, bad call, looked like a good swat. He scooped up a loose ball and pounded the dribble out like a man on a mission and scored the breakaway layup. He attacked off the dribble, jack-knifed under Shaq and banked in the layup (Shaq drilled Raja in the back of the head coming over to help, ouch, that took Bell out, TKO). Nice help D, swatting a lob to Shaq away. He drained a wing jumper over Hill out of a timeout. He missed a pull-up from the elbow with 2 minutes left. He took the outlet off the rebound, pushed it up drawing the defender and hit the trailing Pau for a dunk. Nice way to cap the W off.

Gasol -- -- While he had his hands full against the bigger, stronger Shaq, Pau seems to handle the bigger guys with some savvy. Amare and Shaq combined for 10 offensive rebounds. Pau had just 1 defensive board. That was one of our bigger defensive issues. But we survived it. How? Gasol fought through some early foul trouble and still managed to score 29 points on an efficient 13-19 shooting. He's a very tough cover in this offense. And we could have milked it a ton more in this game. That is what's ridiculous. Down the stretch, he had a series of big plays, including an And-1 throwdown that had Amare on the ground. He had 19 points in the second half. The Stats: He scored 29 points on 13-19 shooting (3-3 from the line), 3 rebounds (1 defensive), 2 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover and 4 fouls in 34 minutes. The Action: He picked up a foul bumping with Shaq a minute in. He blew an easy layup in semi-transition. He worked the two-man game with Kobe, pulling Shaq away from the hoop and Gasol scored a layup. He couldn't get the handle on the return pass on the next one. He hit a running jumphook, working off the two-man game again (this time against Amare, Shaq sat after just a few minutes as his conditioning is a little off from being sidelined so long). He missed a jumphook over Amare getting some contact. He got tapped on a left-handed bank. He slipped the screen with Fish and scored the layup. He held position on Shaq and forced a brick. He drew an offensive foul on Shaq on the next sequence when Shaq caught the ball and spun into him. He went up high to pull down the lob, gathered went back up and dunked. He hit Sasha for a three when Kobe collapsed the D. He threw down off the Farmar lob when Kobe back-screened Amare. He picked up his second foul, looked like a phantom call, early in the second quarter on help D. He picked up his third foul midway through the second quarter as we gave up an offensive board and he had to sit. He had 10 points at the half. First play to start the second half, we run a pick and roll with Fish and Pau and Gasol got an easy dunk. He worked the pick and pop with Lamar and hit the elbow jumper over Shaq. He dunked off the drive and dish from Vlad. He took the pass from Kobe under the hoop, missed, but tipped it back in. He threw a pass away out of a timeout. He swished the face up jumper over Shaq. He faced up with the clock running down, attacked the paint and hit the hook at the buzzer. He scored 22 points on 11-17 shooting after three quarters. Great sequence, LO had pulled down a rebound and as soon as Gasol saw it was secured, he sped down the court leaving Shaq and Amare, he set up on the wing, took the pass, attacked and threw down the And-1 over Amare (Sasha jumped onto Gasol with a bear hug), Pau made the FT. He fouled Shaq on a putback, Shaq made one. He won a late jumpball against Shaq. He attacked Shaq off the dribble and drew a foul. He hit Lamar cutting off him for a layup. Kobe took the outlet from Fish on the bustout, drew the defender and dished to Pau who beat both Suns bigmen down court for the dunk with just over a minute left. On the D end after a timeout, he denied Amare in front of the rim on help D with a great challenge. He got tripped up by Shaq after fumbling the ball and earned FTs, he made both with 47 seconds left, ball game.

Lamar -- -- With Amare bumped over to the PF spot along side Shaq, Lamar had to deal with his size and athleticism versus a smaller Marion. Amare led the Suns with 37 points and 15 boards. Ouch. When we can't throw our length at Amare, he'll make things difficult. Throw Bynum into the mix and we've got a better match up. Lamar didn't back down or disappear on the other end. He completed the 1-2-3 punch for the Lakers. Wish he could have finished a couple more gimmies, wish he wouldn't have gotten swatted badly a couple times, but he played some aggressive, effective ball on the offensive end. He recognized mismatches several times in this game and took advantage of it. He didn't skip a beat against the Suns. The Stats: He scored 22 points on 9-17 shooting (0-2 from three, 4-5 from the line) to go with 11 boards, 2 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 40 minutes. The Action: He got switched by a smaller Bell, he posted him up and hit the jumphook. He took it to Amare off the pinch post handoff with Gasol, took contact and banked the twisting And-1, he made the FT. He got blocked by Shaq after pulling down an offensive board. He missed a pull-up wing jumper. He threw down when Vlad set him up on the drive and dish. He pushed out the rebound and scored despite Shaq getting a piece of the layup. He airballed an open corner three, fading to his right as he shot. He got into Shaq's body off the return pass from Vlad and earned FTs, he made both. He gave up an offensive board to Amare off the Shaq missed FT and got dunked on. He missed a layup around Shaq. He drained a pull-up wing jumper out of the timeout. He earned FTs on an over-the-back foul by Hill, he made one. He airballed a heave for three at the buzzer. He had 14 points at the half. He drew the charge on Amare's dribble drive (that's an advantage of that match up for us if Lamar moves his feet). He hit Gasol off the two-man game for a 17-footer. He blew an easy layup. Great save on one end, throwing it off Shaq. On the other, he got a switch on Shaq (we recognized it as a team, wow), we iso'd for Lamar and he scored a layup around Shaq. He gave up an And-1 to Amare off the dribble. He swished a long jumper with his toe on the three line. He choked a layup he should have dunked (that came off the Kobe/Gasol two-man game...Bynum will be getting a lot of those in that position). He picked up a tech, bouncing the ball off the basket support (lame). He up-faked Shaq and scored the layup. He had 20 points on 8-15 shooting after the third. He got rejected by Amare under the hoop. Nice speed cut off Gasol, he took the return pass and stretched out to finish the layup with 1:27 left, big score.

Fisher -- -- Toughest position in this game to cover isn't Shaq or Amare, it's Nash. One would hope the Suns try to dump the ball into Shaq more and take it out of Nash's hands, but that rarely happened. I think we'll get better on the two-man game defense against them, but we had some issues. We tried to make Nash more of a scorer and he said, okay. I thought Farmar made some better recoveries to Nash in those situations. Fish was average offensively. He did most of his damage from the perimter and we tried to make Nash work on a few sequences. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 4-8 shooting (0-1 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 1 board, 3 assists, 1 steal and 5 fouls in 30 minutes. The Action: He swished a 20-footer coming off the screens to start the game. He missed a corner three. Nice bounce pass to Gasol, who slipped the screen and scored the layup. He swiped the Barbosa pass, pushed it out and drew a foul on the layup attempt, he made both FTs. He drew an illegal screen on Diaw. He drained a pull-up 20-footer from the wing in transition. He worked the two-man game against Shaq/Nash and got a dunk for Pau. He drained the baseline jumper over Bell. He sank a wing jumper with his foot on the three line. He missed a quick wing jumper. He gave up FTs 35 feet from the hoop with 1:49 left, silly foul. He airballed a runner on the next offensive sequence, but we got it back.

Radmanovic -- -- Tough match up for him to go against Hill defensively. That's where an Ariza, or a smaller lineup (with Kobe at the 3) like we went to is better. Vlad watched from the bench as Sasha finished the game in crunch time. He still had some nice drives and dishes as well as a couple more steals. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-3 shooting (0-1 from three), 3 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals and 0 fouls in 24 minutes. The Action: He attacked from the three line, drew the D and dished to Lamar for the dunk. He missed an open three. He picked off the outlet in the back court and sank the jumper with his toe on the three line. He hit Lamar with an interior feed and it drew a foul on Shaq. He got swatted under the hoop, should have been a foul. He found Gasol wide open under the hoop for a dunk.

Luke -- -- In his first stint, the Suns sagged off him and Luke couldn't make them pay. In his second stint, Phil had him at PF, even going against Amare for a stretch. That's on Phil. Either way, Luke was in as a weak link in this game and had the team-high -5. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-3 shooting (0-1 from three), he had 3 boards, 2 assists and 1 foul in 10 minutes. The Action: He worked the two-man game with Pau, collapsed the D and kicked out to Sasha for the open three. He missed a wide open jumper when the D left him as he ran the two-man game with Gasol. He missed a corner three (his lack of perimeter game hurting us). He posted up, attacked baseline and powered up the layup in his second stint.

Turiaf -- -- He got his first run with 6 minutes left in the second quarter when Gasol sat with foul trouble. Interesting late rotation there from Phil. Ronny had his shot going and his foul on. He anchored the D okay, until he was in that undermanned fourth-quarter lineup. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 3-3 shooting to go with 4 boards, 1 steal, 2 blocks and 4 fouls in 11 minutes. The Action: He contested dribble penetration and forced a brick. He swished a face up 10-footer over Shaq. He might have winged a Nash layup attempt on help D, we got the miss. He posted up Diaw and hit the turnaround 10-footer. He swished a 15-footer on the inbounds. He swatted Amare under the hoop.

Farmar -- -- Okay game from Farmar. Even though he didn't score well, he did give us some much needed speed defensively versus both Barbosa and Nash. You could have made a case for him in there late against Nash instead of DFish. He was quicker on the recoveries. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-4 shooting (1-3 from three) to go with 3 boards, 2 assists and 2 turnovers in 18 minutes. The Action: He airballed on a two-for-one runner. Good D on Barbosa forcing him into a chuck and a prayer. He lobbed to Gasol for the throwdown off the Kobe back screen. He pulled up in transition and sank the wing three (one of those shots the coaches go, "No...good shot"), that forced a Suns timeout. He missed a three short, needed to move in a step closer on it. He hit Sasha for a jumper in transition. He missed a three. He couldn't get a loose ball and threw it back in bounds to a Sun, points for the Suns on the breakaway. He pressured Barbosa into a fumble into the backcourt for a turnover. Excellent challenge on Nash's drive forcing the miss (he was then subbed out for DFish).

Vujacic -- -- Big game and crunch time minutes for Sasha. He closed out the game in place of Vlad's spot with Kobe at the SF and he helped keep the Suns at bay with some late FTs. His D was reasonable, too. He also attacked off the dribble into the heart of the D a couple times with some success. The Stats: He led the bench with 15 points on 4-9 shooting (2-3 from three, 5-6 from the line) to go with 1 board, 1 assist and 2 fouls in 24 minutes. The Action: He lobbed a little high to Gasol, but it still led to a score. He drained an open corner three after Kobe collapsed the D and Pau made the extra pass. He missed a three off a low pass. He swished a wide open three off the Luke kickout (KCAL flashed to a Laker fan in Phoenix holding up "The Machine" sign...way to represent for the growing legion of Sasha fans). He missed a layup off the two-man game. He drained a quick jumper from the right side off a Farmar pass. He missed an 18-footer with a man on him. He worked off the Gasol screen around Shaq and scored a layup. He missed an open wing jumper. Nice D on Barbosa with a couple minutes left, forcing him into a miss with a good challenge. He brought the ball up court, set up the offense, got it back and was fouled with 20 seconds left, he made both FTs. He was fouled again with 14 seconds left and made both FTs. He was fouled again and made one.

Mbenga -- -- He came in at the center spot late in the first to go up against Shaq. He got Mbounced by Shaq and Mblocked by Amare. Wasn't pretty for Laker fans. The Stats: He didn't score in three minutes, had 1 shot and 2 fouls. The Action: He got served up an And-1 facial by Shaq after giving up an inbounds to him. He fouled Shaq, trying to root him in the post. He got rejected by Amare trying to throw down.

Phil -- -- Back and forth first quarter with probably the weak links being Vlad and MBenga. The Lakers led 32-29. The Lakers had a 20-6 advantage on points in the paint in that quarter... The second unit with Kobe and Gasol pulled out to a 42-31 lead early in the second quarter. The Suns came back to trail 45-42. The Suns were leaving Luke wide open and he was missing. He was subbed out for Vlad... The Lakers led 65-57 at the half, despite going half the quarter without Gasol who had foul trouble. The Lakers shot 52 percent to the Suns 48 percent in the half. The Suns had an 11-2 advantage on second-chance points (9 Suns offensive boards) and outrebounded us 28-20 in the half... The coaches wanted more one-and-done possessions... Both Shaq and Gasol had three fouls to start the second half... Back and forth third quarter. The Lakers led 95-91 after three. They held the lead despite a lot of iso ball offensively. We didn't shoot a FT in the quarter... Phil went to a Ronny, Luke, Kobe, Sasha, Farmar line up early in the fourth. He didn't counter the Shaq/Amare/Diaw lineup with some size sticking to that lineup and our lead was quickly lost before he made a change. We trailed 106-105 when LO and Gasol were brought back in with 7:20 to go... After a 9-3 run, we subbed out Farmar for Fish and closed with a Gasol, Lamar, Kobe, Sasha, Fisher lineup... Timeout with 3 minutes left, we couldn't get the ball inbounds and had to call another timeout. On the inbounds, Kobe called off the Gasol screen, iso'd on Hill and hit the wing jumper... Shaq had a late flurry of points, but Gasol held the line and turned it up on the other end... The Lakers got outrebounded 46-33. Ouch... We outshot the Suns 56.5 percent to 51.6 percent...

Game Flow -- LINK -- A very choppy line chart, showing the up and down battle. Note the big "V" in the fourth quarter that coincided with Luke at the PF for too long and the game changing back in our favor when we went back to a real PF.

[EColi946]

Thanks for the recap.

[safari_in_cali]

Excellent game and excellent job

[Qsmiff]

Just an all around outstanding game look out folks Kobe takes giant step to mvp






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Favorite DB quote-Kwame Brown -the HumanRicochet

[TooCool]

Thanks a ton DB.

This game had me screaming at the TV all game long. Especially at Mbenga when he looked absolutely atrocious against Shaq.

There were a few times where I thought Lamar was afraid of Shaq as well and just totally blew easy shots because he was afraid he'd get the shot blocked. Hopefully Lamar continues to just dunk the damn ball. It's a easy 2 points.

Great win tonight, that's for sure!
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[Trajan]

Go Lakers!!! Thanks for another great review.

[Dr. Laker]

Good job, DB!
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On Lakersground, a concern troll is someone who is a fan of another team, but pretends to be a Lakers fan with "concerns".

[Ares24]

DJ is like a walking poster! I think he has been posterized in every game hes played.

[SladeRider]

Been waiting for this since the game finished, interesting read as usual, thanks.
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"This is a comptitive city. We're used to winning titles, not just winning games and being in the first round. We want to win championships. Now's the time.", "do something, and do it now."
- Kobe Bryant

[LakerLogic]

This team is truely Showtime II.

[Thedo]

Thanks DB.

Gotta admit, this game had a playoff feel to it. Definitely exciting and happy we got the win.

Kobe bailed us out of this one big time. Every time the Suns came close to taking the lead, Kobe's iso plays came through. He knocked down shot after shot.

Loved the fact that Lamar was aggressive this game and did what he could for our defensive boards. He's giving us the third option we so desperately need. Hopefully by the time Bynum comes back, we won't look so severely depleted in our frontline.

And don't forget Sasha. I'm glad his confidence is there in game time situations. His quick release used to scare me, but he's becoming more and more reliable off the bench for quick points.

Overall, solid win against an elite team.

[Siguy]

Best game of the year so far. Fantastic. Fun. Awesome.

My favorite part: We were missing our center, our back-up center, and our back-up shooting guard.
Suns had their full team and played as well as they could, scoring 123 points ... and they lost.

Shaq's blocks don't make up for his slow, pathetic defense. His offense was fine, but it's offense they don't need.

That was a team that did everything they could, made crazy shots all game, and couldn't beat us. Sure, they missed a few open threes, but they also nailed about a million hard mid-range shots. Great. Great win. So much fun.

[Omar Little]

Not5 to quibble DB, bu while I agree the Suns will better utilize Shaq, they better not expect that level of effort from him nightly. He and Amare might be the two worst bigs at defending the pick and roll, something the suns are going to see a lot of.

Suns are 5-12 against the other 8 best west teams, meaning two things:
1. They have some real problems against quality competition
2. They have a bunch of games left agains said competiton

I have a sneaky suspicion the Lakers just won the Pacific tonight. While I hate to put too much on a regular season game, both teams wanted this badly, and this was huge for the development and confidence of the youngsters.
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“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” ― Elie Wiesel

[George W Buss]

Watching Shaq pushing Gasol and psoterizing Mbenga makes me miss Kwame.
Hopefully Memphis will be kind enough to buy him out and Kwame is willing enough to sign with us at a much reduced salary.

[Omar Little]

[George W Buss]

[KOBEhastheMAGIC]

Come on DB,

This was a game from Kobe.

That was definitely a clean block on Shaq. But eh refs had it in for us all game. The so called charge was a flop by Strawberry too.
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Kobe Bryant has brought the Lakers three championships, 4 Finals, carried an absolutely pathetic team to the playoffs in a loaded Western Conference and has given us countless thrills and memories. If you are not a Kobe fan, then you are not a Laker fan.

[Omar Little]

[DancingBarry]

24 - It's certainly a two-way street. The more the Suns learn to play together, the better they will get...and the more teams play them, the more teams will find and expose the big soft spots.

Also, Shaq may not do as much in the regular season throughout the entire year as a Marion...but playoff wise could be a different story. Where I think they really benefit, though, is the heavy lifting Amare doesn't have to do. You take that off his plate, you give them a little size and you take away one of their bigger playoff weaknesses. I think that will probably resonate better against some of the playoff teams. They are a little more well rounded for post season play.

The other big factor is how well Nash can work with Shaq. They're a poor defensive duo, but could really develop chemistry on that end.

All in all, I think they're better for the playoffs ... as long as Shaq doesn't try to impress too much in the next several weeks and injure himself. Or anymore Suns like Bell...

[DancingBarry]

[LakerSince72]

Thanks again DB. I thought this was a great game for the Lakers' confidence. Knowing that we have injuries to key players and can still out- score the Suns on the road is a huge ego boost. I look to see the Lakers win no less than 90% of the remaining games, barring no more injuries of course.

Nice to see the and not the for Sasha!

By the way I thought the Lakers did a GREAT job with all the no-calls, phantom fouls and ticky-tacks that went against us. In the last couple of seasons, the refs would've taken us out of the game.

[Omar Little]

[Magic'sSon]

I'm sorry bout I LMAO at the lil blue thingy that you put after Luke's input DB!

[mike_dee23]

During the playoffs, if the Lakers meet the Suns, will we see a lineup of Sasha/Ariza, Kobe, Lamar, Gasol, Bynum? It seems size always pays off against Nash and Barbosa.
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MTFBWYA

[Tanlentueux]

DB I love you!!! je t'aime !!! Te quiero !!! Ti amo !!!! Eu te amo !!!! Ich liebe dich !!!! MWen renmen ou !!!!! Ik hou van u ! Na lingi yo !