Playoffs 2010: Western Conf Finals, Game 2 – Suns At Lakers Game Thread

[cly2tw]

Amare's lack of concentration cost us the game. His defense on Gasol was atrocious as well as his positioning/rotation. And somehow Dragic didn't know how to play with Amare to start the 4th, which is more on the coach though. Hill and JRich were superb, as Dudley. Frye is frightened little girl right now and I'm glad Gentry adjusted well to cut his minutes. Lou was what I envisioned coming into the series. Devastating for us is the fact that Artest and Farmar have been unconscious shooting the ball.
It will be hard to win this series if the Lakers keep playing this perfect on offense. Hope Suns bounce back with better concentration.

 

[S_Nash]

Amare doesn't get it.

He gets lost on simple defensive sets. Not to mention half his rebounds tonight, just fell into his hands. I remember one where he was the only Suns player in the paint and he didn't even look like he knew he had to rebound. Ball just fell to him.

I'll always love Amare for what he's brought to this team, but he is so pathetc defensively, it's just sad.

 

[Proteus]

It's sad when you shoot 49% with 10/24 3 pointers and you lose by 12.

To win a game in this series we're probably gonna have to hit like 16/32 3 pointers.

 

[95pro]

i hate kenny smith, but he was talking about defensive rotations.

as i stated, we are lost on our rotations. late and scared to show up.

 

[95pro]

amare " i never regret my comments..."

he also never regrets how he plays...

step up!!!

 

[Yuma]

I think we need to start another big. I know this is controversial, but I would keep Grant in as a starter, let Richardson come off the bench, and you have to put another big alongside Amare and Lopez. We are just getting slaughtered on the boards and the Lakers just tossing it in the middle for easy jumpers and lay ups. The Lakers are shooting over 58% for the series. You HAVE to switch something up! You have to! What you are doing is CLEARLY not working!

 

[jagu]

I think we need to start another big. I know this is controversial, but I would keep Grant in as a starter, let Richardson come off the bench, and you have to put another big alongside Amare and Lopez. We are just getting slaughtered on the boards and the Lakers just tossing it in the middle for easy jumpers and lay ups. The Lakers are shooting over 58% for the series. You HAVE to switch something up! You have to! What you are doing is CLEARLY not working!

There is no switch that's going to stop Gasol and Kobe unless Amare goes to the Wizard of Oz and asks for a brain.

 

[Yuma]

There is no switch that's going to stop Gasol and Kobe unless Amare goes to the Wizard of Oz and asks for a brain.

That's what I mean. You have to have somebody to play Gasol and Odom straight up, because Amare isn't able/willing to play the defense that's needed. Because of Amare's defense, we have to mess with our rotation and start TWO bigs alongside Amare. Actually, Dudley, and Hill were playing decent against Kobe. They at least made him work.

 

[TJ]

i hate kenny smith, but he was talking about defensive rotations.

as i stated, we are lost on our rotations. late and scared to show up.

I agree with this. Too many times did I see Kobe defended by.....Robin Lopez on the perimeter?!?!?

 

[TBaslim]

lakers are better than suns. way way way better. having said that, i don't think i've ever hated anyone, anything or any team more than i hate the lakers. even when the spurs were ripping my heart out every other year for what seemed like a decade, i didn't hate them as much as i hate the lakers.

What he said

 

[TBaslim]

The Suns are not as bad as the last two games have shown, and they are not as good as the sweep of the Spurs showed.

It's all about the matchups with these current playoff teams. This years playoff teams, esp out west, are filled with hella-good athletes on all the teams. Talented, capable, etc. But the teams have some really different styles and matchups. It's been the key to the outcome of pretty much all the series so far.

We just match up terribly with the current Lakers squad man for man. It's the inverse of the Spurs. This year we matched up great against them man for man.

One of the biggest reasons we did well against the Spurs? We can finally defend the pick n roll respectably. Lopez and Frye can move their feet in a way Shaq never could, and get over on the roll. Completely changed our results against the Spurs.

The Lakers? They barely run the PnR. Our defensive schemes are really bad against the triangle. Add the fact that at an individual level almost all the matchups are in their favor, even if we have the more 'talented' player.

They are bigger, play good defense, esp 3pt defense, and they run an offense we are not well suited at defending.

So we give up 55+% shooting and 125 per game, while shooting under our normal %'s.

I'm still optimistic we win one or maybe even two at home. If we win two, it would mean we have figured out the triangle and then it's anybody's series. Not likely, but one can hope.

Oh, and if the Lakers face the Celtics, I think the Celtics pull it off. Again, matchups. Celtics have decent size, great defense and are rough and mean. Gasol and Odom will wilt under that pressure. I'd be ok with that.

 

[mojorizen7]

I think we need to start another big. I know this is controversial, but I would keep Grant in as a starter, let Richardson come off the bench, and you have to put another big alongside Amare and Lopez. We are just getting slaughtered on the boards and the Lakers just tossing it in the middle for easy jumpers and lay ups. The Lakers are shooting over 58% for the series. You HAVE to switch something up! You have to! What you are doing is CLEARLY not working!

Yep. As i stated on page 2, we should brinch JRich off the bench where he cannot be guarded unless PJ reacts by bringing Artest off the bench also.....which would likely put Odum into the starting 5 where we would have a favorable matchup with G.Hill vs Odum(as well as getting Artest out of the lineup where he's really hurt us).

Right now the LAKERS bench is beating our guys.....JRich(in particular),Duds,Barbs,Frye & Lou would absolutely go off on their guys IMO.

So who starts? We could do two things. Start Dragic at the 2 where he would guard Kobe(Hill moves over on Artest). Dragic is a better athlete than Hill and he's got better vertical speed IMO. I'm not saying Goran will do any better than Hill or Duds but this move is primarily about moving Richardson to the bench. I also think that with JRich looking hard for his offense it will take some of the pressure off Frye to score 20.
With Nash & Goran in the backcourt we can try to run some screens to try to get Nash some open looks.....he needs to score. I also think Hill vs Artest is a better matchup than having Grant chase Kobe around.

Or we could start (gasp) Frye next to Amare & Lopez. I think we can all agree that Frye has choked thusfar...but IMO he'll shoot better at home on Sunday. Go bigger upfront(ask Frye to focus on rebounding, rather than scoring 20) and go with Nash/Hill in the backcourt. We have GOT TO close the gap on the boards because we simply don't have enough defense to stop the LAKERS weapons. Frye/Artest isn't a particularly favorable matchup but maybe Frye's length will bother him a tad.

It's been a great season no matter where we finish.....the LAKERS are a better team than we are. Kerr/Gentry has got this thing headed in the right direction by emphasizing defense,toughness etc...but we don't have the horses defensively yet. Amare? Nash?.... I've said before that these two men combined will never win a title and i'm sticking to it.....but thats another debate that always seems to divide us as a SUNS board(understandably so).

We can debate that after the season ends.

Point is Gentry needs to change it up in a big way IMO. Force the LAKERS to react to something because we have no chance if we stand pat and just tinker with double teams,zone's etc....

Extra points:
-Give Lopez heavy minutes in gm 3 plz(if he's not feeling any pain).He's got 5 months to rest up.
-If there's anybody out there who still believe's in the hogwash statistic that is plus/minus......Frye was a (-1) while JRich finished a (-12).

 

[AzStevenCal]

-If there's anybody out there who still believe's in the hogwash statistic that is plus/minus......Frye was a (-1) while JRich finished a (-12).

It doesn't always tell the full story but I still believe in it. Frye's was decent because we were playing our best defense while he was on the court. Not because of him but because someone else wasn't out there most of that time. And if Frye had been anywhere near decent we'd have been a plus 10 while he was out there instead of a minus 1.

Steve

 

[AfroSuns]

Or we could start (gasp) Frye next to Amare & Lopez. I think we can all agree that Frye has choked thusfar...but IMO he'll shoot better at home on Sunday. Go bigger upfront(ask Frye to focus on rebounding, rather than scoring 20) and go with Nash/Hill in the backcourt. We have GOT TO close the gap on the boards because we simply don't have enough defense to stop the LAKERS weapons. Frye/Artest isn't a particularly favorable matchup but maybe Frye's length will bother him a tad.

+1
I think this is probably the best option, go bigger and bring JRich of the bench. We need to match their height somehow while drawing one of their bigs out at the same time. I have said it before, Frye sucks on the road and very well we shoot better on Sunday.