Santa is a Laker! LA beat Phoenix 122-115
(Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times) The Lakers, a quickly developing young team, ruined Christmas on Planet Orange with an impressive 122-115 win over the Suns.
It was Kobe leading the way, a game-high 38 points, but it was Bynum doing most of the damage. Andrew, under the keen look of his Hall of Fame mentor Kareem Abdul Jabbar, was spectacular: 28 points, 11-of-13 shooting, and 12 rebounds.
Kobe, like MJ used to do, turned it up in the third quarter and scored 26 points in the second half and added 7 assists. Bell and Marion did a decent job defending on Bryant actually.
The Suns had seven players scoring in double figures led by Nash’s 24 points (and 14 assists). Stoudemire scored 19 points, Marion and Bell had 15, Hill added 14, Barbosa and Skinner 10 each off the bench. Brian Skinner played over 22 minutes and is quickly become a big part in the Suns rotation.
The key to the Suns loss was, I believe, inside defense.
Stoudemire looked confused - often late and out of position - on defense most of the time and the Suns were much better defensively with Skinner and Diaw on the field.
Coach D’Antoni tried to play with two centers in the lineup to limit the Lakers’ rebounding supremacy and their ability to find the open men in the paint off penetrations. That worked, to some extent, on defense but limited the Suns quickness on offense.
The Suns (19-9, 3-5 in the last eight games) haven’t won back to back games since December 7th and are just a game ahead of these up-and-coming Lakers.
The Suns will be back in LA, this time to play the Clippers, on Thursday Dec. 27th (8:30 PM).
Yours truly, Steve Fan
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Posted by Steve Fan
Blogger and Steve Nash enthusiast. Don't get in his way, he'll MVP your ass.
http://sonsofstevenash.blogspot.com
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