I missed all of game 3 and 4 and barely caught the post-game tonight.

So what's the deal with Phoenix's zone? What are the Lakers having problems with specifically? Is it fixable?

What should we expect in game 5?

theyve taken the ball out of pau's hands, turned kobe into a jump shooter, and basically turned the game into a 3 point contest.

The Lakers are not penetrating the zone well and not shooting the 3's worth a crap (3-19 with Kobe excluded). Kobe's the only reason the Suns didn't win by 25 and have the game in hand by halftime. He's had back-to-back games of 35+ points and 10+ assists. He's basically getting no help.

Lakers were also outrebounded by 15 and gave up 18 offensive boards. The 32 to 13 advantage at the FT didn't help the Lakers' cause nor did the 54-20 disadvantage off the bench. A couple interesting things about this game is neither team had more than 8 turnovers, the Lakers actually outshot the Suns from the field, and Amare was the only Sun with more than 15 pts (21).

I will be interested to see what kind of energy Phoenix, their role players in particular, plays with in Game 5 after basically not showing up the first two games.

[This message has been edited by Look Out Below (edited 5/25/2010 11:40p).]

I thought Lakers decided to boycott winning in Phoenix

To 1,000,000 touchdowns...and beyond

Lakers are suffering because they don't have a real PG on the roster.

The Suns played this zone against the Spurs a couple years ago and it worked then too. I can't even tell what kind of zone it is. It's sort of a matchup 1-2-2. They have enough length on the perimeter to make the open shots not so open and they are really clogging the lane. Most importantly, they're not fouling the Lakers because the Lakers aren't doing a whole lot of penetrating. Getting to the line is what enabled the Lakers to score 120+ in LA. Now that they've being "held" to 106 a game it's just not enough. The Suns are too good offensively.

When the Spurs overcame them three years ago it was because they had better shooters, a PG who could penetrate, and a big man in TD who was smart enough to pass out of the zone. The Lakers shown that they might not have the patience to consistantly beat it.

It's a 2-3 zone. It's designed specifically to protect the lane.

In practical terms what it does is take away the size advantage of the Lakers. The Lakers beat it a couple times by penetrating, pulling the middle defender and then hitting a cutter but most of the time they tried to run the pick and roll/triangle and the Suns are playing disciplined D.

Pau gets double teamed as soon as he gets the ball. Kobe is going to get his but they're making him give up the ball half the time.

At some point Artest, Brown, Farmar, Fisher, Odom are going to have to start hitting some 3's. They were awful last night on some largely uncontested 3pteds.

I love it when Artest catches the ball with no Suns player within 15 feet of him and no intention of actually chasing him down. It's as if they're collectively thinking "PLEASE shoot it".

If I were Alvin Gentry, that would be a big part of my strategy.

With teams as talented as the lakers, you have to identify their week links and then be disciplined enough to MAKE THEM beat you. If they can keep Artest jacking up shots, they'll have a good chance.

The Spurs played the same strategy against guys like Frye/Dudley/Drajic and those guys ate them alive. It is kind of a crapshoot but more often than not it works, particularly when the "guy" is forced to play outside of his normal role.

Every time Artest touches the ball I'm saying "shoot it".

quote:

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Lakers are suffering because they don't have a real PG on the roster.

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This.