The Lakers winning this game despite an almost non-existent offensive contribution from their 3 point guards (a combined 0-11 from the field) gives hope to Laker fans. This was not a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination. But it showed that with defensive intensity and by taking advantage of their advantage in size, the Lakers can be competitive against the Phoenix Suns.

give kobe and the lakers D credit for limiting the suns offense..

True or false?

Great defense played by the Lakers.
Great defense played by the Jazz.
Great defense played by the Pistons.

Again, true or false?
Great decision making by Kobe,
great decision making by Deron,
great decision making by Brian Hill.

I couldn't agree more with everyone saying Hill actually holds back the Magic. Any coach would've kept Nelson productive and turned Howard into even more of a beast. I remember all pundits raving about Nelson a year ago but all they have to say about him now is he is a career backup.

I love the playoffs with all the excitement and the "side stories" of the matchups, but I believe the coaching situation in Orlando simply ruins the team in the long run. And I'm not even a Magic fan.

Well played game by the Lakers, but let's be realistic, but the Suns helped them win this game. For starters, Amare got into foul trouble, and remember that Marion and Nash aren't going to score a combined 20 points again.

Another thing, the Suns only lost by 6 points, not 16. This was a tied game with about one minute left, and so for all of Kobe and Kwame's heroics, had the Suns hit their final shots, the media wouldn't all be celebrating that the Lakers have won one game.

I'm a Pistons fan but the Magic should really be feeding Dwight Howard the ball more and he really needs to step up. Howard should be the main focus of the team for years to come. He's young, athletic, strong but he's averaging subpar numbers these past games. Really, who's surprised the Lakers CAN hang with the Suns? Given enough effort on the defensive end and exploitation of Phoenix' defense, they can win games. I just don't think they'll pull off an upset.

Kobe showed last night why he is far and away the best player in the league...and there's not even a close second...how Kobe was able to lead that group of clowns on his team (not including Lamar Odom who is about 50% healthy)to a victory over the Suns is beyond me..heck, I don't think anyone on the Lakers team other than Kobe and Odom would even be in the Suns rotation

I remember Michael Jordan once said that he would try to make 3 FGs and get to the line twice each quarter to get his 32 points a game. That way he wouldn't dominate the ball and other people could get involved unless he had to take over.

By no means am I saying that Kobe is MJ, but that was a very Jordan-esque game he played last night. He shot a ridiculously high percentage until the 4th quarter, and because he didn't settle for jumpers all game, he got to to the line more than he had all season.

The game he played last night was vintage MJ, before MJ got older and had to rely almost exclusively on his post up fadeaway jumper.

I don't think the Lakers can come back from being down 0-2, but they could take this series 6 or even 7 games if they continue to take the ball to the rim.

I choose not to comment on Kobe, simply because last night's performance speaks for it self.

But what you said about the Magic struck me, because last night I eerily said the same exact thing! Why would you bench players like JJ and Travis when you can use their ability to stretch out the defense and play a real inside/out game with Howard in the middle?

In fact, why did Brian Hill do that ALL YEAR LONG!? Well, it doesn't matter, because Orlando is another playoff team that their fans are already looking for what they can do in the offseason. Peace Grant Hill, I hope you have a great life outside of the game (Duke fan here) and hello Vince Carter??

We'll see....

I think Sir charles said it best last night when he said " Kobe aint Michael, but he is the closet thing we have seen"

If, and its a big if, the lakers win game 4, the notoriously soft Suns ( especially Marion and Nash) will start to fall apart. Watch. Even if the Suns get past the lakers, there is no way they beat the spurs. This will be another year that a Steve Nash team gets a top 2 seed and cant even make the finals. Seriously, how come no one ever brings this up about Nash. He was on the Mavs and they always choked. He leaves, they become one of the best in the league. He goes to the Suns, lights it up in the regular season, then chokes year after year in the playoffs.

It amazes me. The suns pound the lakers on Tuesday not much of a sound from the media. The lakers get a win handed to them by the Suns and well everyone is talking what a great game they played. Typical.

the talk all series (and all season) has been about kobe's scoring. too much shooting in game 1, not enough in game 2, just right in game 3. what is lost in this is the fact that the lakers' woes should not be traced, though popular to do, to kobe's offensive perofrmances but rather the team's defensive performances.

without reviewing the lakers' second half travesty of a season (which would be strikingly similar in tone to this series), just look at the first three games of the series with the suns.

in game 1, the lakers led at halftime not because kobe scored so much, but because they held phoenix to 39 first-half points (78 ppg avg.). conversely, they lost that game not because kobe was 1-for-10 in the 4th quarter (the rest of the team was only 3-for-11), but because phoenix scored 56 second-half points (112 ppg avg.). even so, it was still a 4-point game with 2 minutes left.

go to game 2, and though kobe scored only 15 points, he led the team in assists and the lakers still put up 98 points (enough to win both games 1 and 2 had they played the same defense as in game 3). the problem was they gave up 126 points!

now in game 3 kobe scores 45 (and again, leads the team in assists - for the series only steve nash has more), yet the win is not talked about because of his scoring but the lakers' defense. exactly where the conversation should be.

i just hope that if/when (probably when) the lakers lose again, this element is remembered regardless of what kobe does as a scorer.

That's what happens when you're the underdog man. Everyone knows the Suns by overall stats and talent are better than the Lakers so a win for the Lakers is well appreciated whether or not in your own words "The lakers get a win handed to them by the Suns" The media and people generally respond to underdogs. If the Lakers take game 4 then we have a series. But this would definitely be hard considering the Suns hardly play terribly twice in a row.

of course it's a bigger deal that the lakers beat the suns, rather than the suns beating the lakers. Just look at the talent.

Phoenix fans that are telling themselves right now that this was just a bad game by the Suns aren't really looking at things correctly.

First off, after shooting 82% in the first quarter, it looked like the Suns had everything under control.

But suddenly the Lakers actually started to play the pick and roll like it was supposed to be played...they switched, jumped the screen and trapped Nash aggressively, using the trapper's larger size to shield Nash's FOV. This did two things. One, it resulted in some key turnover which allowed the Lakers to shave a 17 pt deficit to 3. Two, it completely disrupted the rhythm of the Suns....they never regained the flow they had in the first quarter.

Then Kwame (of all people) started abusing Stoudemire in the paint. Throw in the obscene offensive rebounding advantage, the near elimination of the fast break, stalwart defense in the paint, another ho-hum 45pt performance by the Kobester, and despite 0-11 shooting from the collective PGs the Lakers still won.

I am a Raptors fan and i remember watching them play in Orlando for their 4th matchup of the season. Everytime Howard had a touch in the low post trouble ensued for the Raps...yet Orlando just gave up on giving him the ball down low. Brian Hill is a horrible coach.

Kobe's ankle-breaking crossover-dunk last night on "self-proclaimed" defensive player of the year Shawn Marion was this year's version of Kobe's "obscene" posterization of "No D in Steve" Nash from last year's playoffs. You know what I'm talking about -- Nash wearing Kobe's jock strap on his head as a GQ fashion statement.

Think about this, the Lakers only have two guys who would get any minutes at all for the Suns. Nash is playing with two-all stars and a future all-star (Barbossa). The Suns won 60 games and the Lakers barely made the playoffs. This series should've been a sweep, plain and simple. And if the Suns can't win game 4, then they don't deserve to win the title.

The Laker's improved defensive performance was mostly a result of their aggressive switching on the Sun's screens. The reason that this strategy was effective had less to do with the Laker's defense, and more to do with Nash's lackluster effort. If this strategy is employed again, expect Steve Nash to abuse the Laker bigs on the perimeter and put up 25-30 points off of his speed and outside shooting. For some reason Nash seemed disinterested in shooting last night (I believe he didn't take a single shot in the 4th quarter) and still the Suns kept the game close.

I don't see the Lakers winning another game in this series. Their season ends Wednesday night.

Flip Saunders has specifically instructed Sheed to yell at him instead of the officials.

There is no excuse for the way Rasheed is treated every single game by the refs -- he has every right to be annoyed.

I do really think the lakers should play sherman williams more. Not so much for his offensive ability, but for his quick feet to catch barbosa, or nash. As good as farmar is, sherman is one level ahead of him, simply because experience does speak louder in playoff.

It's very easy to say that Nash has all-stars and future all-stars in his team. Short memory. Wasn't Phoenix at the bottom of the West before Nash arrived? He MADE all-stars out of Marion and Stoudemire.

See Ian Thomsen's article about Jason Kidd's penchant for making his teammates better.

Nash and Kidd are better than John Stockton. They didn't just create one Karl Malone. They made everyone better.

Cheers from Sacramento!
King4kong

KMS

The suns never did deserve to win. And yeah, nash does choke every year, but that doesn't come up. why?

RICK ROSS IS A BEAR

frank, everthing you said is ludicrous. The Suns don't fall apart. They never have and they never will. To say that they 'choked' in the playoffs the last 2 years is blatantly stupid. They fell to a better Spurs team in 2005 and they made it much further than many people predicted they would last year, precisely because they *never did choke.* When the chips were down and their backs were against the wall, they showed as much resilience as I've ever seen from a sports team. They do this because of the confidence of D'Antoni, the fire of Raja Bell, and especially the leadership of Steve Nash, who you're mindlessly smearing. It is the Mavericks, who no longer have leadership of the likes that Nash brings, who actually did choke in the Finals last year, and who are choking right now against the Warriors.