I think everybody here is forgetting something very key. This team plays up, and down, to the competition. When we're playing the Miami Heat, who will most likely go 0-82 this year, we have a great chance of losing. When we play the Clippers, who are without Brand, we have a very good chance of losing. However, when we play the Kings, Twolves, Spurs, or Lakers, we may lose, but we'll be in the game. Of course, this is all based on last year's team, but considering we have the same core of players, why would this year be any different?
Shaq will have his way tonight. We don't have a 7'2 guy who will guard him, but we didn't have that last year either. We had Lakavos Tsakalidis, and sometimes he'd play a little against the Lakers, but did the 3 minutes he was in there, slovenly lumbering around while picking up quick fouls really make a difference? Maybe, but not much.
LA has Payton now, who is a great player and I don't think he's lost a step in his moderately more than young age, but we have Stephon Marbury. Payton's a great defender, but that only matters to guys like Shawn Marion or his blind supporters who make up excuses for their poor play. A guy like Steph? He's a baller; he's a gamer. If anything, seeing a top-tier point guard will only motivate Stephon that much more to will his team to win. If it means turning into Starbury, or turning into MJ, or turning into a guy who simply gets his teamates involved, he'll do it.
Malone is tough. To me, he's the real x-factor in here. Stoudemire does have a tough time against the Lakers because they're so big and Phil Jackson and his staff are very intelligent defensive coaches. Let me rephrase this. The power forward position is the x-factor in the game. If Malone barrels into Stoudemire twice, blatantly picking up 2 offensive fouls, then we're going to be in trouble because the refs are going to suck and assign the fouls to Amare. If Malone does that once, and Amare comes down all excited playing against his childhood idol, Shaq, and who many say is the best pf ever, Malone, he might be in foul trouble all night. Of course, seeing Malone out there may remind Stoudemire all the more to get out and run the floor, and he might have 5 dunks in the first quarter, getting the crowd energized and the Suns starting to think we can really win this game. In that way, the game really hinges on this position.
X factor number 2 is Kobe Bryant. If he comes out on fire, that will probably surprise us, and then Shaq will do his thing and Payton will push the ball down our throats and Malone will do the offensive foul thing and the Lakers might run us off our own court. But Kobe could also hurt his team somewhat. The people who say Kobe will do this in the long run are wrong, because Kobe is a great player and knows how to win. But in his first game back, after he hasn't had the preseason or the first 2 games of the season for him to get acclimated to the vastly changed Laker game, it might cause some chemistry problems. Problem is, unless the Suns blow the team out, if the four hall-of-famers are on the court in the late fourth quarter and the game is close, it'll be hell to win the game.
