Say what you want about the regular season, but the first round slate of playoff matchups are nice. While we tap our feet in anticipation of postseason joy, the FanHouse NBA crew is happy to take you by the hand and lead you into the postseason with our first round playoff previews.
Biggest Reason You Should Watch: To see if these teams can match the intensity of last season's epic seven game series in which the Lakers were literally a rebound away from advancing to the second round.
Los Angeles Can Win If: They go Riley-era-Knicks and slow the tempo of the game to a half-court crawl, instead of running in the track meet that the Suns seem to prefer. The Lakers managed to do this to some extent in last year's series, but couldn't sustain it for seven games (or even a fourth). Oh, and staying at home on the Suns' outside shooters instead of leaving them to help defend Nash wouldn't hurt either.
Phoenix Can Win If: They continue to shoot 40% (.399 if we're splitting hairs) as a team from three-point land as they have all season, and they keep Kobe from doing the ridiculous. In the two meetings this season that Kobe participated in, the Suns held him to 34 and 31 points, both Phoenix victories.
Stud of the Series: Gotta go with Kobe here as a one man playoff wrecking crew. His heroics last year were insane, and I believe the best player in the league will do everything he can to drag the Lakers to some victories. I just don't know if he can do it by himself.
Biggest Liability: The Lakers' defense. L.A. as a team finished 25th in points allowed per game, and against a team like the Suns that's a recipe for disaster. Unless they go away from what they've done in the past and guard Nash straight up, without helping off of the other Suns' shooters, this will be the biggest reason for a quick Lakers' exit from the post-season.
FanHouse Prediction: Suns in 5. Kobe will be able to squeeze one victory out of this series, but the fact that he can expect zero help from the rest of his team makes this a series that (unfortunately) will be a far cry from last year's seven game slugfest.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Suns 4.....Lakers O.......end of this story
Suns VS. the one man show Lakers? It's a no brainer.
Brett buddy, you conveniently forgot the last game the two played, when the Suns held Kobe to 17 points on 7 for 26 shooting.
Suns, sweep.
As long as the Suns take every game seriously, there should be no problem.
Lakers in 7.
Revenge will be sweet. Odom+Kwame+Bynum+Turiaf will handle Matrix and Amare.
Kobe will average 40 and will play so well that he will incedently find a cure for cancer.
Also Phil Jackson has a hot girlfriend Mike D'Antoni not so much.
Unless the Suns have a total melt-down, they should win handily. Jackson doesn't seem as effective this year as a coach. Is that thanks to Kobe? Who knows. In any case, there doesn't seem to be enough team cohesiveness to take the Suns. Even if they slow it down to a half court game (yea right), who is going to keep up with Barbosa? or Nash? If Diaw keeps up his recent aggressiveness, combined with Amaré and the Matrix, with a little tough low block D from Thomas, the Lakers are in for a short playoff run.
As far as Kobe's vanity is concerned, you are right. He will try to win at least one game on his own to prove he can score on anybody. Problem is, that won't do his team any good-PUNK!
Suns in 5 sounds good to me but a sweep is even better!