NBA PLAYOFFS: Game 4: La Lakers @ Phoenix

[schnakenpopanz]

i would like to quote a great post from espn board:

This Suns team is one of the most entertaining teams I've ever watched. The fact that they have a real shot of going all the way just makes it all the sweeter.

You could say that the Suns and Lakers are polar opposites, from the coach to the star player right down to the bench. There's a scene that sticks out in my mind from last night. Kobe hogs the ball (and makes near every shot) for two quarters, then is finally given some rest. While on the bench, he his shown with a scowl on his face yelling angrily at the bench.

I'm not surprised the Suns are underrated. We live in a society that worships their antithesis: greed, arrogance, success at any cost, inter-species competition, immorality. In other words, the Lakers.

[sunfire0112]

Awesome!
http://espn.go.com/blog/TrueHoop/post/_ ... -is-a-star

In the late hours of the war room,
Griffin working phones,
A payment to the Alamo,
The Suns would be your home.

Handle, shooting, poise …
There was no rookie magic,
We quickly picked it all apart,
Your last name looks like “Tragic.”

A fraud, a waste, a bust,
Even Suns fans did that talkin’.
What insult could cut deeper
Than calling a Slovenian “Slovakian?”

But now we’re in the playoffs.
It’s two-thousand and ten.
The Spurs brushed you aside that June,
This May -- you did it to them.

Muscle for a rebound.
Fight like hell through screens,
They drafted you for defense.
Somewhere Steve Kerr beams.

Tenacious on the dribble,
Defenders spun around.
It’s new: The Suns can build a lead
While Nash is lying down.

3s, assists and free throws.
Once more to the lane!
If the Suns can shock the world
Goran Dragic is the name.

[impulsenine]

moved to better thread

[BurningHeart]

Just got back to LA.

Game experience was obviously awesome. Stadium is real nice and convenient. Like how the D'Backs stadium is there too. The crowd was pretty clean, not many dirty people. Lots of Laker fans though. I mean TONS. Our seats were ****in' awesome. Diagonal to the Suns bench across the court, 11 rows up.

The crowd is much louder in person than it seems on TV, or maybe we were just extra loud. When that three point barrage in the second quarter occurred, JEEZ. When Frye hit the first one it was deafening. It was Kobe v. the Suns in that quarter. One of the most exciting sequences of basketball I've seen in my life to be sure.

Got off to a ****ty start in the game. That's SEVEN STRAIGHT horrendous first quarter shooting displays for the Suns. Luckily the second and the fourth came across well. Third quarter was ugly, got outscored by 8. It's about time though, that people started talking about how poorly LA is playing defense. Our zone is bothering them because the triangle has a hard time against the zone. Laker shooters are falling back down to earth. Kobe is a God of course, he's not going to fall off. I do "fear" that he's going to get tired though. I'm actually "afraid" that the Lakers are getting real tired. They're playing a ton of minutes, versus the Suns starters who are not playing as much due to the amazing bench the last game. I mean, it's amazing, the Suns B team beat the Lakers A team last game. Unreal.

Won the rebounding which is crucial, even though there were a few sequences where the Lakers got MULTIPLE offensive boards, which was infuriating even in the stands. We collapsed on Kobe a few times and he burned us with gorgeous passes.

I loved our aggression. Sure, Amare wasn't as "on" last night, he missed a ton of FTs, but he got to the line a lot. Reminded me of the old Amare.

What can I say about Dragic though? Dude is some sort of....Dragician. He's a future Ginobili without the bitchmade. That move on Fisher and Odom, all the assists...not to mention that rebound he STOLE from Kobe. Bench as a whole, like I mentioned. Dudley was huge, Frye WOKE UP, Lou was great, Barbosa played well. Total team effort.

As for Game 5....I don't know what to think. On the one hand, the Lakers can wake up and play some defense. They could rotate quicker, play chippier, something. They could start making their shots. Who knows. I mean....it's not as if they were COLD in the last two games, they just came back down from Mars, where they were in Games 1 and 2. They could get hot again, but who knows.

As for the Suns, well, no perfect game yet (that was the closest though). The bench could ride momentum from their first real good game in this series, the starters can wake up. It's going to be key to maintain aggression because if we don't, the Lakers will get the calls by default. Going to be interesting to see if Kobe starts to get pissed off. Might be trouble for LA (awwww) if no one else gets going b/c Kobe is bearing the load. Gotta continue to make him work hard, put some wear and tear on his body.

Gotta mix up the defense more as well. LA will most certainly have figured out what to do about the zone. Generally play zone when Kobe's out, play man when Kobe's in, sprinkle in the others given the situation. Pick n' roll will be crucial for Nash and Amare to establish, b/c it wasn't particularly there last night.

Just stay hot, stay focused, and play hard. Good things will happen.

------------

Phoenix is a really cool place. Downtown was gorgeous, and CLEAN. Remarkably clean. Felt extremely safe walking around even later at night well after the game. There was this pizza place called Pizzeria Bianca, supposedly one of the best pizza places in the whole nation. Hour and 45 wait, but WELL worth it. Probably the best pizza I've ever had in my life.

As we were waiting, we saw Steve Kerr, his wife, and four younger people (kids?) walk in. Didn't want to bug them while waiting. They sat down, ate, whatever. We were seated right next to them. As they got up, I look at him and I say "Thank you, Stevie" and start clapping a bit. He gets excited, says thank you, and the whole restaurant starts clapping as he walks out. Even patted me on the back. It was pretty cool. I couldn't very well tell him "Yeah, I wanted to slaughter you violently up until about February, but good job building the bench and not trading Amare.", could I?

Also saw Craig Sager at Majerle's after the game. He was hittin' on some chicks, LOL. Tall dude actually. We had Majerle's before the game when we got in town. Pretty darn good food, cool atmosphere, and HOT chicks. Every chick was hotter than the previous one. They gave out some Beat LA signage and some other stuff.

[garyb916]

Haha ^^ awesome story dude.

That's awesome that everyone was applauding Kerr after he was done there though, not buggin him during his meal.

It's nice to hear that the Suns fever came back to Phoenix. When I lived there in 08 was when it was getting sucked out by Shaq and Porter.

[rsavaj]

great story BH!