Lakers 124, Suns 112 (Lakers lead 2-0)

Before this series is OFFICIALLY over, it seems all but over for the Suns.  Now I picked the Suns to win this series because, like the Lakers, they were playing hot all around and everyone was performing at the peak of their game.  But just like Shooter said, guys like Frye were playing WAAAAY over their heads and it’s killed the Suns thus far.

Kobe scored 40 points in game 1, so what was the game 2 strategy?  Well it seemed like they were going to try their luck with Hill on Kobe again but that was short lived.  Jared Dudley played D on Kobe for much of the game but that didn’t stop him from scoring 23 points and dishing out 13 assists.  Not only did the Suns not stop Kobe again but their was no answer for Pau Gasol and if you didn’t know it then, you know it know that Amare doesn’t play good defense.  You can’t expect Lopez who missed so much time to just get up in Gasol’s face and shut him down.

The reason why I am calling the series now is because if Grant Hill goes off for 23 and Richardson scored 25+ (27 tonight) and Nash has 15 assists and they STILL lose AND give up 124 points it’s highly unlikley they win more than 1 game.  Again, I could be wrong and home court could turn things around but only time will tell.  Amare needs to step up his rebounding game because Gasol, Odom and Bynum combined for 37 on the night with Odom leading the way with 11.  Every year in the playoffs Odom has that game or two where he takes over and wins a game for the Lakers.  Well he didn’t have any games like that thus far but it seems like this entire series will be “that game” for Odom.

The Suns did actually tie the game at the end of the 3rd at 90 but the fourth quarter was dominated by the Lakers, hands down.  The Suns found themsevles down by 14 at one point in the first half and they need to start off the game on top and stop playing from behind.

Keys for the Suns:

• Channing Frye has made as many shots this series as I have… yeah, zero.  He is one of the 3-point specialists on the team that needs to make 3′s!
• Grant Hill needs to NOT guard Kobe but he does need to continue playing like he is 25 again and score the ball.
• J-Rich needs to score 20+ a game or the Suns have no shot.
• SOMEONE put a hand in Artest’s face at some point!

Keys for the Lakers:

• Continue to play multiple bigs in the game at once because Phoenix can’t handle the boards.
• Shut down Amare and J-Rich.
• Let Kobe touch the ball 80% of the game.

Tidbits:

• I love Kobe, but I hate when he does the pointing thing, he makes the STUPIDEST faces and it’s un-Kobe-like.
• The Nets stink, I officially don’t care if they draft a brick or an actually player.

-Basher