What Will It Take?

[Irish]

The Lakers really are a better team at home. It will take a lot of work by the Suns to win Thur night. Oddly enough the key may be to figure out who Kobe is guarding and make a point of running hime into the ground. If Kobe is on J-Rich, then have Jason run around and fun Kobe into a lot of pick. Save with Leandro and the Dragon.

Kobe plyed 45 minutes in game 4 after two games of 43 minutes. After lighting the Suns up for the second and third quarters, he went silent in the fourth quarter. As it was, Kobe relied on jump shots to attack the Suns and didn't get the basket very much. If his legs were tired, it might explain why he stopped shooting.

Kobe rold reporters that he wan't tired and he may be accurate. But tired legs can be fatal for jump shooters. If he does go cold, there could be a lot of long rebounds.

 

[az1965]

When he played the entire 2nd half of game 3, he was definitely tired at the end of 4th as his 3 pointer were hitting the front of the rim. He will never admit though.

 

[ninous26]

- 3 Pointers, at least 10 of them made.
- Bench plays like game 4
- Consistent Defense
- Amare agressive

 

[Irish]

- 3 Pointers, at least 10 of them made.
- Bench plays like game 4
- Consistent Defense
- Amare agressive

Fry stays on game 4 form
Good 25 minutes from Lopez

 

[chickenhead]

More of the same! The Suns were hesitant in games 1 and 2. Frye was clearly scared, and Amare wasn't up to the challenge. All of that has changed since then. It's going to be a much tougher task in LA, but I expect the Suns to play better than they did at the beginning of the series.

 

[Cheesebeef]

what will it take to win a swing game 5 on the road against the defending champs? SUPERSTARS MUST PLAY LIKE SUPERSTARS. Look, these moments aren't moments when you can expect 54 points from the bench. These moments are when your best must be THEIR BEST and then you hope you get one or two other guys off. It all comes down to Amare and Nash. If they play great basketball, seize the day basketball, we can win. If they don't and they play like Games 1 and 2 we'll get our doors blown in. Simple as that.

 

[Bufalay]

This game is huge for Nash and his legacy. A loss tonight would be consistent with what he has done throughout his career. If he can lead the Suns to a win in this series with one of his clutch performances it would be huge for his legacy.

 

[TucsonDevil]

Its gonna take a squad of 10 men playing hard, aggressive and controlled.

Strategically, I would want to stay with the zone 89% of the time.

Robin and Amare need to keep out of foul trouble.

Work on Bynum, get him tired early.

Amare needs to drive every single time he touches the ball, regardless of result. This will convince the referees he is the aggressor and he will benefit with calls.

Nash needs to find his jumper - but more importantly, he needs to control the tempo and distribute. I want to see 18+ Assists.

Planet purple needs to continue to show energy and out hustle the opponent.

The Lakers will be better. This is the game of the year, winner will take all. I can hardly wait.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Strategically, I would want to stay with the zone 89% of the time.

I think 88% of the time will be sufficient.

Robin and Amare need to keep out of foul trouble.

I don't see a problem with Robin picking up early fouls. Even if he fouls out he doesn't seem to change his game because of foul trouble. Amare is a different story, if he picks up a cheap call or two early it really takes him out of his game.

Amare needs to drive every single time he touches the ball, regardless of result. This will convince the referees he is the aggressor and he will benefit with calls.

This will be critical. However, we've all seen him get mad after the first time he drives and the refs ignore the call. The next time he drives it's a 50/50 chance the refs will put him in his place by calling it offensive. He needs to stay aggressive but keep his head because it might take several good plays by him before the refs give him his due.

We need our bench to play well there but like Cheese said, this is the game for the stars to step up. This one will likely be won or lost by the starters.

Steve

 

[Covert Rain]

It's going to take the Suns limiting turnovers, keeping the Lakers around 100, Amare being aggressive in the paint, the Sun getting to the free throw line and our bench scoring at least 35 points.

That's all.....

 

[Bufalay]

Amare doesn't need to drive 100% of the time. He needs to drive when he can get to the basket. Sometimes he'll drive right into 3 guys and force up a crazy shot. I saw that happen a number of times in the first two games. If the Lakers are going to clog the lane then he needs to get rid of the ball.

 

[illone]

I think the Zone defense will be the difference.

Suns were able to hang around in game two and tie up the game for the start of the 4th qtr, and that was playing man-man defense.

If the Suns zone works in LA, we'll win.

 

[jagu]

Zone defense will limit what the Lakers can do inside. I hope the guys like Farmar, Artest, Brown keep clanking. I think the Suns do a great job rotating on the perimeter and putting pressure on the outside shooters before they shoot. We can't stop Kobe that's for sure, just make sure we limit another guy from having a big night.

We can do this. We were 3 games worse than the Lakers and won a lot of big games to get this far. Let's hope we get this one.

Let's hope the Dragon goes off also, because he makes the Suns ridiculously fun to watch when he does go off!

 

[jibikao]

- 3 Pointers, at least 10 of them made at high %.
- Bench plays like game 4 (Yes, Frye needs to make more than 0/5)
- Consistent Defense
- Amare being very aggressive
- Nash having less turnovers during critical time

Yes. And if we even fail one of the above, we will not win at Lakers'.

 

[Errntknght]

I think the most important thing for this game is for our bench to stomp the Laker's bench... make all LA's starters realize they are going to have to do it all - that will have to be disheartening and there are two more games for it to take its toll. A win would be great but I'm certainly not ready to concede game 7 because we are slowly grinding them down.

 

[Tyler]

Its going to take more COWBELL!!!!

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