5/10 - Game 4: LA Lakers @ Utah Jazz. 7:30

[DoctaJ]

Yeah sweeeep.

On to the next one.

[Pablo Escobar]

Pau is playing great and I admit I was hating on him during the season and im not going to apologize for that he played like crap but is showing up in the playoffs where we need him the most, now it's time to smash those suns into pieces 48 minutes of pounding the ball inside until they give up.

[SashAlex]

I'd laugh my a$$ is someone told it would be a sweep.

That's how we should punch the Suns, with Kobe and Pau mainly, and give him more touches !

How much will they rest ?

[DubaLakers]

Two Western Conference Sweeps, hard to believe. Sager said 7 day rest, so the first game is next Monday.

[The Skyhook]

Two Western Conference Sweeps, hard to believe. Sager said 7 day rest, so the first game is next Monday.

7 days is going to do wonders for the Lakers. Just goes to show that it pays off to be dominant in the early series.

[LAKESHOW]

first of all, it is a great great rest period for our guys. secondly, that should play as an advantage. not only for rest purposes, but our lengthy runs the past few years will give us a good break. our experience knows how to deal with long rest periods and use it well for prep time. jax's teams usually come out smokin HOT after a rest period. 3rd, phoenix is HOT! they came out hot entering into the post season. 7days will undoubtedly cool them off "a bit" but any type of cooling for them is an advantage for us. how so? a running team needs to keep the engine running and goin strong. but 7days will get them to stop the engine, turn it off and stick it in the garage for a lengthy time. getting the engine going again will be a challenge.

a small tidbit in regards to this game. great coaching by jax, great willingness to come thru by brown. he messed up and phil pulled him. instead of keeping him out, phil threw him back out there, and instead of gettin down on himself and gettin gun shy, he came up big and drained some 3s.

[Optms]

Btw, this is the Lakers third straight Western conference finals appearance. Worth mentioning because comparing this run to the previous two, this is potentially the easiest trip to the finals pending how they handle the Suns. Realistically, neither teams the Lakers have faced were championship material and neither will the Suns despite what they're enthusiastic fanbase would have you believe. The Lakers are already the favorites, and if they come out and play their game. They'll take care of their opponent sooner rather than later. I'm starting to think who ever comes out of the East are going to be in a dog fight, so it's best to take care of business like we did last year against the Nuggets quickly. Catch up on rest as much as possible.

6 days off here. Gotta find a new hobby in the meantime.

[Jajwanda]

The Suns would have benefited from their series going slightly longer, surprising the Lakers in game one as the Rockets did a year ago. I'm glad the Suns don't have that advantage.

[countrybama24]

I think the Jazz series is creating a false sense of security. They were literally the most favorable matchup possible save for dwill. No long defenders on Kobe (he's being guarded by a rookie, and not doubled unless he drove), no shotblockers to defend either Kobe's drives or your post players, Gasol wasn't doubled so he just made layups over Boozer who is 5 in shorter than him (and also awful at defense to boot).

Despite this, the Jazz made the first three games incredibly close, leading at points late in the 4th in the first 2 games, and the 3rd game was basically 50-50, kobe had to make that last shot, dwill had to miss, and wes matthews had to miss a point black layup, refs had to not call a foul on boozers offensive rebound (not blaming the refs for the loss here, they were bad for each side, like wes holding fisher, just saying it could have been easily called a foul). And after that bad luck in the 3rd, the Jazz were emotionally broken.

Thats not to take anything away from the Lakers. They were very good, and proved it. I just think this series was clearly the most favorable defense the Lakers will face in the entire post season.

I would say the Lakers need to really beat the Suns convincingly, because the Jazz series proves nothing. Although I do think the Lakers will beat the Suns, that series will be a far better barometer of how you'll fare in the finals (although, also a poor barometer).

The same goes for the east though too I guess, the hawks and charlotte are making Orlando look really good, when their respective offenses were just too pathetic to compete. Can't wait for this next series / cavs-celts tonight, could potentially be Lebrons last home game in Cleveland if they somehow got beat tonight.

[BallAboveAll]

Btw, this is the Lakers third straight Western conference finals appearance. Worth mentioning because comparing this run to the previous two, this is potentially the easiest trip to the finals pending how they handle the Suns. Realistically, neither teams the Lakers have faced were championship material and neither will the Suns despite what they're enthusiastic fanbase would have you believe. The Lakers are already the favorites, and if they come out and play their game. They'll take care of their opponent sooner rather than later. I'm starting to think who ever comes out of the East are going to be in a dog fight, so it's best to take care of business like we did last year against the Nuggets quickly. Catch up on rest as much as possible.

6 days off here. Gotta find a new hobby in the meantime.

Seriously when I heard that game one isn't until Monday I was shocked. But I do think the rest will help us especiallly Kobe and Bynum.