Do we stay in the Zone for Game 4?

[eastcoastSUN]

Looks like the zone worked pretty well for us last game, but its effectiveness may have been due to the Lakers' not game-planning for it much (or you could cred Gentry's sheer brilliance for telling the media that he would play man D a day before game 3 ).

Scenario A: Bynum starts. We start the game with zone D and dare the Lakers to beat us outside. It's a hit or miss depending on how streaky Kobe and Fisher can start the game.

Scenario B: Odom starts. We start the game with zone D but the penetration of Odom and Kobe kills us. The first man off the Lakers bench is Vujasuck and he drains three straight 3s. We switch back to man.

Either way, the key with the zone is to clog the middle up so the Lakers' big men can't cut as easily (without the ball) and get a wide open 5-ftr/layup.

Thoughts?

 

[Tyler]

Looks like the zone worked pretty well for us last game, but its effectiveness may have been due to the Lakers' not game-planning for it much (or you could cred Gentry's sheer brilliance for telling the media that he would play man D a day before game 3 ).

Scenario A: Bynum starts. We start the game with zone D and dare the Lakers to beat us outside. It's a hit or miss depending on how streaky Kobe and Fisher can start the game.

Scenario B: Odom starts. We start the game with zone D but the penetration of Odom and Kobe kills us. The first man off the Lakers bench is Vujasuck and he drains three straight 3s. We switch back to man.

Either way, the key with the zone is to clog the middle up so the Lakers' big men can't cut as easily (without the ball) and get a wide open 5-ftr/layup.

Thoughts?

For some reason Coach didnt call me before practice to suit up today so I missed what was going to happen in game 4.

If I was a guessing man I would assume the Suns continue to use the zone, it worked masterfully last night.

 

[Superbone]

You keep going with what works until it doesn't work anymore.

 

[TJ]

Phil Jackson seems to always have an answer for everything so I fully expect him to adjust accordingly. There are always holes in a zone defense and I think he's smart enough to find them.

With that being Gentry needs to have a contingency plan in place when/if the zone fails.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Along with the holes in a zone defense that the Lakers will somehow find more often, I am pretty sure they will also shoot better from the field. They did have a ton of open shots - which is what the zone will produce, and missed a a large % of them... I think our zone will continue to limit their points in the paint, but ONLY if Lopez and Amare can stay out of foul trouble and are able to get Odom, Bynum and/or Gasol in fout trouble. Getting Odom and Bynum in foul trouble so quickly yesterday definitely made them more tentative on the offensive end...

 

[Absolute Zero]

I think Gentry will mix it up, some zone, some man to man to keep the Lakers from getting into a rythym.

I only saw the first half yesterday, did the Suns stay in the zone for the whole game?

 

[AfroSuns]

Well if they didnt plan for it, that is kinda dumb. Didn't Kobe say in one of his post-game interviews after game 2 that they are expecting the Suns to break out the zone defense.
The Lakers struggled with zone defense a lot during the regular season. Phil may have an answer for it but i think it will still remain more effective than any defensive scheme the Suns comes up with, especially if it is used in spurts

 

[AfroSuns]

I think Gentry will mix it up, some zone, some man to man to keep the Lakers from getting into a rythym.

I only saw the first half yesterday, did the Suns stay in the zone for the whole game?

They went zone 2nd quarter and limited the Lakers to a 17pts quarter i think

 

[Covert Rain]

Phil Jackson seems to always have an answer for everything so I fully expect him to adjust accordingly. There are always holes in a zone defense and I think he's smart enough to find them.

With that being Gentry needs to have a contingency plan in place when/if the zone fails.

100% agree. Phil is way too smart to fall for that again. I honestly think we caught them off guard for the zone. I don't think they prepared for it in practice. That will not happen twice. I guarantee Phil has them putting in extra practice to prepare for it. That means Gentry is going to have to throw different looks at them and be prepared for when the Lakers counter.

I think game 4 is where we find out if Gentry can play chess with the master.

 

[az1965]

I think Gentry will mix it up, some zone, some man to man to keep the Lakers from getting into a rythym.

I only saw the first half yesterday, did the Suns stay in the zone for the whole game?

I agree, we should mix it up a bit.

I also prefer giving them jumpers compared to high percentage shots in the paint. If they make it and win, so be it... they deserve it.

But, look for them to try to attack the basket more and get to the foul line. Kobe pointed that out couple of times in post game interviews and I'm sure they will try to balance that out as well.

 

[az1965]

Another subtle point... Jackson really wanted game 3. You can tell by him playing Kobe the entire 2nd half. Kobe was tired a bit because of that as you could tell when his 3 pointers towards the end were hitting the front of the rim. With only one day between, I hope that has some impact.

I also think game 3 would have been a blowout for us had our bench contributed even only a little bit, like hitting 3-4 3 pointers.

 

[mojorizen7]

Phil Jackson seems to always have an answer for everything so I fully expect him to adjust accordingly. There are always holes in a zone defense and I think he's smart enough to find them.

With that being Gentry needs to have a contingency plan in place when/if the zone fails.

Agree. Whatever worked in the last game probably won't fly in the next game against a PJ coached team.

 

[dodie53]

stay with the zone until it is ineffective

 

[TJ]

I also think game 3 would have been a blowout for us had our bench contributed even only a little bit, like hitting 3-4 3 pointers.

Agre 100%. Kenny "the Dick" Smith kept saying that if the Lakers made their shots, they would have won. True, but we shot equally as bad as they did and we are a much better shooting team all around. I always contend that if you get into a shoot out with us, you'll lose 9 out of 10 times.

Look for Frye and Duds to find their rhythm tonight

 

[jibikao]

Zone defense is the best way to defend our home court. We don't have the size to guard one-on-one and letting big guys coming in only frustrates Amare even more.

Let Lakers shoot open shots outside because if they miss, we'll turn it into running game.

Ron Artest missed quite a few shots but he isn't exactly a great shooter either. In fact, he shot very bad against Thunders in the first few games.

Our shooting has been poor too so it's not like Lakers gave the game to us. We haven't played our good games yet. Suns got 40 foul shots isn't exactly in our gameplan.

 

[Chaz]

They will probably start in man defense but switch up with the zone as needed.

Per Majerle on 910 yesterday.

 

[Louis]

stay with the zone until it is ineffective

Shouldn't be long before it is.

In game 3 there were plenty of chances for the Lakers to go baseline or use a high/low offense. Surprisingly they chose to shoot jumpers. Many of which were open.

Tonight will be a very different game from the Lakers.

 

[JCSunsfan]

You make them come up with an answer for it. You anticipate their answer for it and you have a response. If they don't answer it, keep doing it.

The zone forces the Lakers into being a jump shooting team. We will win a jump shooting battle with them 5 or 6 times out of seven. They are not a jump shooting team.

I want the Suns to pound them tonight. Just pound them. Make them doubt themselves. Take it at Bynum hard and early. It should be painful for Kobe to drive the middle.

 

[Chaplin]

Shouldn't be long before it is.

In game 3 there were plenty of chances for the Lakers to go baseline or use a high/low offense. Surprisingly they chose to shoot jumpers. Many of which were open.

Tonight will be a very different game from the Lakers.

See, that's what's funny. People here are no proclaiming Jackson to be this god of coaches. But in reality, he had 30 minutes to render the zone ineffective and was unable to do it. It's not like we were in the zone in only the last half of the 4th quarter. We switched in the middle of the 2nd and they couldn't score on it. That's an eternity in a basketball game, and that's without considering a change of strategy during the halftime break.

I'm not saying it'll be effective tonight, I just think it's premature to totally write it off as a failure before the game has even started.

 

[Covert Rain]

See, that's what's funny. People here are no proclaiming Jackson to be this god of coaches. But in reality, he had 30 minutes to render the zone ineffective and was unable to do it. It's not like we were in the zone in only the last half of the 4th quarter. We switched in the middle of the 2nd and they couldn't score on it. That's an eternity in a basketball game, and that's without considering a change of strategy during the halftime break.

I'm not saying it'll be effective tonight, I just think it's premature to totally write it off as a failure before the game has even started.

A coach asking his players to do something mid game and practicing for it are two completely different things. You can try and make adjustments during a game but that is no substitution for running through those scenarios in practice.

One thing Phil Jackson has done on a consistent basis is make adjustments from game to game throughout his career. My hope is that he and his team or so arrogant they didn't really change anything up in practice.

 

[BC867]

Another game. Another Suns zone. Another Suns win.

 

[eastcoastSUN]

I think we stayed in the zone D for at least 90% of the game.

Walton came off the bench for his playmaking to try and penetrate the zone. He ended up 0-1 FGs in 2 min.

I'm surprised we didn't see Vujasuck off the bench today. At least he's dating Sharapova.

 

[elindholm]

Walton came off the bench for his playmaking to try and penetrate the zone. He ended up 0-1 FGs in 2 min.

Although he did have 2 assists during that time, oddly enough.