First Quarter
With the Lakers coming off the most exciting win of the season (not to mention a 7 game winning streak), and the Suns playing on the second night of a back-to-back, tonight’s game figured to be a battle. Both teams opened the game on fire, with long jumpers and fast breaks dominating the first 5 minutes. The Lakers played relatively solid D after the hot start, causing multiple turnovers. After the initial burst, the Lakers were able to build a 9-point lead. Kobe picked up where he left off after the last game and scored on the first basket, unfortunately the Suns started doubling Kobe and no one else could really pick up the offensive slack. This allowed the Suns to creep back into the game and close the quarter down 3.
First Quarter Notes/Highlights: :
• Kobe: Started off the game with a nice And 1 from 20 ft after pump faking Richardson into the air. It blows my mind that people continue to fall for this! Regardless, Kobe played quite well until the Suns started to double team, at which point he dished off the rock. Unfortunately, no other Laker could convert consistently from the field and the Suns were able to creep back into the game.
• Defense: Another good defensive stretch, albeit in spurts. Ron and Kobe were definitely playing aggressive defense and Fisher was able to stay in front of Nash for the most part.
Second Quarter
With the majority of the bench playing to start the second (lamar, farmar, and brown), I wondered what kind of game this would turn into. Would the bench continue to give away games? The reserves opened the second with a burst from a Lamar block and a Shannon Brown jumper but after that, the sloppy play started. A few turnovers, a missed dunk and a double-dribble call once again left the Suns close the gap to four. One thing I’ve noticed is that the bench continues to hurl up threes after going inside early. Just like tonight; the Lakers went down low early to Bynum and Artest, but Brown and Farmar took multiple contested threes early in the shot clock. After the bench unit got some run with Bynum, Phil inserted Pau into the lineup and the offense seemed to flow much better, enabling the Lakers to push the lead back to 9. As much as I love Bynum’s game, he really has become a black hole recently. Once you throw that ball to him down low, it’s not coming out! Pau was hitting cutters as soon as he was inserted- hitting Farmar more than once. The starters returned with a 46-39 lead and about 4:50 remaining in the second. The starters pushed the lead to double digits to close the quarter with strong play from Ron Ron and Kobe. Let’s see if the Lakers can blow this open in the third- I doubt the Suns can stay with them if they start firing on all cylinders.
Second Quarter Notes/Highlights: :
• Lamar’s Block: Lamar had a nice “Lebron” block on a fast break layup, which resulted in a Shannon Brown jumper.
• Ron Ron’s Strong Play: Ron finished the half with 12 points and three assists. Another solid game in the making for Ron Ron.
Third Quarter
With the starters closing the half strong, the third quarter opened with more of the same. The backcourt continually fed the post, resulting in easy baskets for Andrew and Pau. It was nice to see Bynum kick the ball back out and re-establish his position- he hasn’t been doing this often enough and it was good to see Kobe enter the ball back to him immediately. Not surprisingly, this resulted in a 7-0 run for the Lakers to increase the lead to 15. After the Suns cut the lead back to thirteen, Bynum once again established himself down low with a thundering dunk off an alley-oop toss from Kobe. I can’t wait to see more of this; before we traded for Pau it seemed like Andrew was throwing down 3-5 BRUTAL lobs a game. Does anyone remember that dunk from the foul line? I do… I do. Anyways, once the Lakers built up that 15-point lead, carless turnovers on fast breaks allowed the Suns to get back into the game. On back-to-back plays, the outlet pass was thrown and led to either a forced layup or a turnover. If these plays had been converted, this would be a 19-20 point lead. Fortunately the Lakers closed the quarter strong, using defense as a catalyst for the offense, pushing the lead to 21. There were too many highlights to discuss here… check for the video highlights, and some of the better plays below.
Third Quarter Notes/Highlights: :
• Ron Artest Defense/Steal: Artest pressured Amare after a defensive rebound and forced the turnover. It’s rare to see this kind of defense from a Laker other thank Kobe; don’t you love it?
• Kobe Three to close the third
• Farmar Dunk
Fourth Quarter
The Suns opened the quarter on a 10-0 run against the Lakers second unit +Kobe and Bynum. Whatever rhythm and momentum the team had exiting the third was quickly lost in the fourth. It wasn’t that the effort and energy were missing; the team just wasn’t able to convert on offense and get the same stops they were getting before on defense. Is it the fact that Pau isn’t in this lineup? Hard to tell unless Phil switches up his rotation, but let’s see if this develops into a trend as the season wears on. I feel like the second unit lacks a low post passer when Pau is out of the game, and Lamar unfortunately isn’t filling that role. As if I predicted the future, Lamar was subbed out and Pau was put into the game. Is it possible that Lamar is experiencing a deathly hangover after his Rich Soil clothing release party? Who knows, but he definitely wasn’t himself tonight. Almost on queue, the team moved the ball much better and was more active defensively. With the lead cut to thirteen, Pau’s return to the game resulted in a 20 point Lakers lead on back-to-back ShanWOW threes. The rest of the game was never in doubt, with the Lakers consistently answering all attempts at a run by Phoenix. Lakers win again, although this game was decidedly less exciting than the last.
Fourth Quarter Notes/Highlights:
• Shannon Brown: After a relatively quiet first three quarters, Shannon was able to turn it on in the fourth, making two three’s and a few other jumpers.
• Lamar?: Where was Lamar this game? Wow. Non existent performance.
Popularity: 1%
 |
