Lakers @ Suns Playoff thread - Sunday April 22, 2007 -12:00 pm

[TheHopToad]

Haha...maybe the Suns strategy should be keep to Farmar in foul trouble, so Smush has to play more....he just plain sucks!

 

[Kel Varnsen]

Brazilian Blur!

I love it!

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Bryant has missed 11 of his last 12 shots...

 

[slinslin]

Amare was great in the 2nd half, made a huge difference on defense on some plays forcing Kobe Bryant to get nothing.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Game over!

 

[elindholm]

Whew, one down, three to go. An easy Game 2 would be nice.

 

[Cheesebeef]

solid win - big 4 all came to play - Nash, Marion, Amare and especially Travis Bickle, came up huge!

we basically stole this game and now we need to finish the series by winning Game 2 - no let up!

DB!

 

[arwillan]

Whew, one down, three to go. An easy Game 2 would be nice.

you mean 1 down 15 to go. this is a marathon, not a sprint

 

[arthurracoon]

yea!!!!!

 

[Mike Olbinski]

That was way too scary for Game 1...

Kobe scared the living crap out of me in the first half.

 

[hsandhu]

Game 2 is huge, we win and it is a quick series. We lose, and it will be a struggle like last year.

 

[TheHopToad]

I'm actually glad that the first game was somewhat of a struggle and close all game. Maybe it will temper some of the cockiness the Suns seem to have had and will refocus them a little more. I was beginning to think that maybe they were taking the Lakers a little too lightly. It's ok for the fans to think that way, but not the players.

Hopefully this will serve as a wakeup call without costing them the game and allow them to ratchet up the intensity for all four quarters in the rest of the games. That was an outstanding defensive fourth quarter by the Suns.

 

[Divide Et Impera]

Great halftime adjustments by Coach. Man, the gameplan was to feed it down low to Amare and that worked well and worked quickly, which then allowed the Suns to work into the other aspects of their game....

Leo was an animal out there. Everytime he scored at the rim, the Lakers shoulders would slump. Very poor body language all game from teh Lakers. Leo is a demoralizing force....

 

[Griffin]

Gotta give props to Marion and Amare who combined for 28 rebounds, 22 defensive. Marion definitely backed up his comments. We didn't shoot the ball well but Barbosa came through in the second half. Here's hoping Bell finds his shot on Tuesday. Great job on Kobe in the second half.

 

[Bufalay]

diaw didn't play that well but that dunk was awesome

 

[sunsfn]

The suns quote from the book that came up about letting Kobe score his 40 points and we will win, well Kobe scored 39 points on 15-33 and the suns won.

 

[Treesquid PhD]

I thought Marcus banks was amazing with the towel.

 

[Mainstreet]

Great games by Nash, Stat, Marion and LB. However, IMO, Barbosa was the player of the game for the Suns. His drives to the basket, especially in the second half, ignited the Suns. The Lakers had no answer for him. This young man has arrived.

As a side note, I cringed every time Marion took a 3 point shot. Could someone please tell him that he plays the best inside.

 

[hsandhu]

I actually saw SOME signs of life in diaw. It was hidden by the fact that his jump shot was beyond atrocious. Hopefully he can start giving more as the playoffs progress.

 

[sunsfn]

Just a little recap from the game.
-------------------------

Barbosa matches playoff scoring high; Suns take opening game


PHOENIX -- The "Brazilian Blur" breathed life into the Phoenix offense, and Kobe Bryant went from awesome to awful.

The result was a second-half rally that gave the Phoenix Suns a 95-87 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in their first-round playoff opener on Sunday.

Leandro Barbosa scored 19 of his 26 points in the second half, including 15 consecutive Phoenix points in one stretch, to match his career playoff scoring high. Amare Stoudemire, back in the postseason after missing last year's while recovering from two knee surgeries, addded 23 points and 12 rebounds.

Bryant scored 39, but only 11 in the second half. The NBA's scoring champ was 1-for-10 shooting in the fourth quarter, when Phoenix pulled away.

Steve Nash had 20 points and 10 assists and Shawn Marion 16 points and 16 rebounds for a Phoenix team struggled mightily until Barbosa provide a spark, highlighted by a 31-footer at the third-quarter buzzer that cut the Lakers" lead to 77-74 entering the fourth.

Lamar Odom had 17 points and 16 rebounds for Los Angeles.

 

[Mike Olbinski]

The suns quote from the book that came up about letting Kobe score his 40 points and we will win, well Kobe scored 39 points on 15-33 and the suns won.

He was dumb in the late minutes of the game...he had a guy under the hoop open, but instead dribbled to the top of the key and took a shot that missed. He needs to score when he's hot and pass when his guys are open.

He didn't do anything to help the Lakers win that thing at the end.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I actually saw SOME signs of life in diaw. It was hidden by the fact that his jump shot was beyond atrocious. Hopefully he can start giving more as the playoffs progress.

yeah, I saw that too, but that just makes me sad that I was somewhat happy just to see "signs of life" from Diaw. If he actually had his stuff together, this team would be unbeatable.

really liked Shawn's energy out there today.

 

[slinslin]

Lakersfans are amazing:

We won because we flopped and the refs hate LA.

Actually Boris Diaw flopped on that play when they took away Marion's putback dunk because of the foul. Really amazing..

Kobe charging into Amare should have been a no-call according to them and Nash flopped when he cut off into Farmer's lane.

Maybe they should look at Odom flopping at least 2 or 3 times after minimal contact in the post, too bad Odom needs to get more acting lessons.

 

[sunsfn]

He was dumb in the late minutes of the game...he had a guy under the hoop open, but instead dribbled to the top of the key and took a shot that missed. He needs to score when he's hot and pass when his guys are open.

He didn't do anything to help the Lakers win that thing at the end.

The book also said that Kobe makes bad decisions when he shoots so many times late in a game.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Diaw's defense was as abysmal as his jumpshot, the guy had a really poor game. Amare and Marion were beasts though especially on the offensive glass. If the Suns don't hit the boards they probably don't win the game.