Jackson Admits Suns Were "tired and heavy-legged"

[Mr. Sun]

What already would have been a challenging road game against a Western Conference contender became more difficult for the Lakers because of the quirks of the NBA schedule. As a result of playing a nationally televised game against Phoenix on Thursday night in Los Angeles, the Lakers' flight didn't take off until after midnight and the team didn't arrive at its hotel until about 4 a.m.

Jackson refused to use that as an excuse, pointing out the schedule worked in his team's favor the previous night when the Suns arrived in their seventh city in 10 days "tired and heavy-legged."

http://www.pe.com/sports/basketball/lak ... 47f0b.html

[impulsenine]

BUT OBVIOUSLY THE LAKERS WOULD HAVE WON BY FIFTY IF THE SUNS WERE RESTED.

[lou_skywalker]

as if it would make any difference if the Suns were fully rested.........

[impulsenine]

Need the green font there, mate.

[RaisingArizona]

OMG ITS ALWAS EXCUSIES WIF YOU SNS FANS!

[PHXfan85]

Phil is just a Suns fan. That's all this article has proved to me.

[ATTL]

Typical suns fans. Delusional as always I see.
/green

[rsavaj]

We were, but it doesn't change the fact that Bynum always beasts against us since we don't have anything resembling interior defense. Any team with a power player is going to kill us(Howard, Bynum are good examples)

[Jimmy76]

We were, but it doesn't change the fact that Bynum always beasts against us since we don't have anything resembling interior defense. Any team with a power player is going to kill us(Howard, Bynum are good examples)

pretty much

did we have Frye or Amare guarding Bynum most of the night? I think Frye is a much better man defender than Amare.

[hunterxaz]

We were, but it doesn't change the fact that Bynum always beasts against us since we don't have anything resembling interior defense. Any team with a power player is going to kill us(Howard, Bynum are good examples)

Wait til Rolo gets back. I think Gentry will be comfortable playing him more than Collins, and Rolo can knock some bodies.

[b-ball forever]

Frye and Lopez are not better defenders then Amare.

[Shuttlesworth]

Frye and Lopez are not better defenders then Amare.

Nope just 12 more fouls

[JohnVancouver]

Since we all know so damn much, how about we as a brain-trust come up with a scheme for playing the Lakers? TSherkin for one is a savvy x-o type.

They have certianly got a game plan for us - any time players like Nash, Stat and JRich all have underperforming games onthe same night, it's more than just tired legs. They knew just how to take us out of our game (aside from having a wealth of talent)

So what can we do?

Can we run Lopez or Collins at Bynum, push him off his spots? Can EC devote himself to harassing Kobe so that JRich isn't too exhausted to score?

[WTFsunsFTW]

Frye and Lopez are not better defenders then Amare.

Blocks are not defense. Amare is very bad on defense. I would rather Lopez guard centers.

[ATTL]

Frye and Lopez are not better defenders then Amare.

Then we are doomed. Doooooomed.

[tsherkin]

Since we all know so damn much, how about we as a brain-trust come up with a scheme for playing the Lakers? tsherkin for one is a savvy x-o type.

I appreciate the compliment, but at least spell my name properly... no caps. There have never been caps in my name, and I've been posting all over the boards for 6 years now, c'mon.

So, which end is the issue? I happen to think the dreadful offensive performance was largely because of tired legs, but clearly we didn't take sufficient advantage of the pick-and-roll. Not having the jumper as a threat was a problem. We need to establish Amare early, and I think we need to play him at center. We don't have anyone who can legitimately guard Bynum anyway, so if he's going to torch us, we might as well make it back, because Amare's equally unguardable.

Phoenix's offensive success begins and ends with how Nash and Amare are playing, because there are no other scorers of consequence on this team. J-Rich kind of counts, but thus far, he's been assisted on 70% of his shots, more than Amare (who is dead-last in +/- on this team, BTW), but less than Frye (90%).

In any case, we start with the PnR. Once that's established, we mix it up. Nash penetrates and kicks out to find shooters, while also looking to establish his own shot. Sometimes he takes a screen to do it (without the roll), sometimes not.

We post J-Rich early and often. Kobe's big, but J-Rich is bigger. See if we can get him going on a few early possessions there.

Next, we need a f'g competent second ball-handler who can be on the floor at the same time as Nash. 13% (!!!) of his shots are assisted but he's one of the greatest shooters in NBA history. We need to get him off-ball a little so we can stretch the floor for him. I posit that he should fill the corner, the wing or maybe the top of the circle behind the arc while we post J-Rich, so that we can try to dump it in, kick it out and swing it so that Nash can get some easy 3s.

Beyond that, there's little the Suns can scheme for offensively because they don't have a lot of versatility. They need to hope the shots go down and that Amare's aggressively driving to the rack... and not putting up (Please Use More Appropriate Word) swing-finger roll BS shots like he was that night. WTF were those? Man up and try to dunk, idiot.

Defensively, accept the inevitable. Bynum's going to score and so is Kobe. Double Bynum, and leave Kobe in isolation. Maybe start checking Kobe in the backcourt so he can't get to the post early in the possession, limiting the time he has once they get it over the timeline. We can run Barbosa, Richardson and Dragic in and out at the 2 to keep them fresh and have them man up on Kobe from baseline to baseline, trapping at the halfcourt line and trying to keep the ball out of his hands as long as possible. He'll get it anyway, but the deeper they get into the shot block, the better.

They'll counter by using Odom as a press break and by going to Bynum a lot, so we release the trap shortly after the ball gets over the timeline, but if we can keep him out of the post until the shot clock gets to 14 seconds or so, then we have a chance to do something defensively.

[b-ball forever]

Frye and Lopez are not better defenders then Amare.

Blocks are not defense.

... Which is exactly why Robin Lopez isn't a good defender.

He's active but it doesn't amount to rebounds. He always bites on pump fakes, tries blocking everything instead of holding defensive position, has poor footwork, doesn't rotate or switch properly, etc...

[garrick]

Bynum had a pretty good game versus the Nuggets but the Lakers lost anyway, the key for that game was playing good man and team defense on Kobe. Aaron Affalo did an excellent job on Kobe from what I saw.
If our shots were falling versus the Lakers the game would have been competitive but for some reason they just wouldn't go down, Barbs, Stat and J Rich had terrible offensive stats but perhaps that is due to fatigue?

[tsherkin]

Fatigued legs don't tend to shoot long Js well, no.

[RaisingArizona]

The lakers are saying the same thing about their 8 point 3rd quarter Must be tough playing 2 games a week.