Sweet Virginia, it's a series again!

Well. It took 84 games for the Lakers to finally figure out how to defend the pick and roll. Halllulah!

Its overs for the suns!!!! Go Smush hahah!!!

THANK YOU, LAKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!

YEAH BWWWWWOOOOOYYYYYYYY!!!!!!

Are you kidding me? The game was thrown by the refs. 28 FTs to 12. they did not call anything for the Suns. I know it's a Lakers home game but come on! In the fourth quarter alone, I counted at least half a dozen Laker fouls that was not called for the Suns. Discraceful.

Just one more win and this is already a series!

it was a very good game by the Lakes! That the kind of intensity I wana see. Wow if twisting both ankles makes Kwame play like he did..then maybe Shammond and Parker should do the same! lol

Awesome
Totally Awesome

(way to go Hamilton)

The Immortal words that filled me with giddy joy.

"Oh Sweet Jesus!!!! He's done it again!!!" *

*After Kwame Brown turned in his best 4 consecutive plays in a row that he ever has.

I we would have lost after that transcendant moment... I would've felt the pain I felt after the game one meltdown.

last year, they won three in a row.
this year... FOUR IN A ROW!!!!!! Bring on da spurs!

Congrats Lakers!
I love Amare's face and that SOB D'antoni. Those Suns players are so cocky and arrogant that we deliver them a lesson tonight.

WE PLANTED THE SEED OF DOUBT IN THEIR MINDS!

I hope we can play with this same intensity Sunday. For me at this point beat the Suns and eliminate them is better than win the championship.

BUT, WE NEED MAJOR CHANGES NEXT SEASON:
FIRE:
SMUSH, COOK AND SASHA
CUPCAKE

BRING KEVIN GARNETT, HE WILL DELIVER THE RINGS BACK TO SHOWTIME LAKERS!

This is what it means to play with energy, to play defense and most importantly, to play smart. They were trying to get us to run, be we slowed down, got into the paint, and made the game ours. They tried to hold us down early, being down 11-0, but we said F it, we're better than this. We stayed MENTALLY in the game, and won it.

For every shot that came after that 31 point quarter, it was contested. For every shot that was on the way to the paint, it was challenged. THAT"S WHAT IT'S GOING TO HAVE TO TAKE. Effort, intensity, effort, intensity, mentality. We're better than we've shown lately, and this game has shown it.

Bench guys were standing cheering. A full 180. That's an energy booster. Kobe driving the lane incessantly, that's an energy booster. Socks changing shots, Kwame coming back after hurting...that is huge! Kobe making shots that were simply mind boggling, LO playing D like a madman...going after EVERY loose ball. Farmar not quitting, Shammond and Smush combined made a difference. These are all things that we have to play consistently.

This game showed how important our PGs are in our game. And while without Kobe, that woudln't have mattered much either...but for one night, it made a difference. Barbosa was not in rhythm. Nash was not so MVP like. The only one really that got his was Amare...and even that got neutralized by Kwame's energy.

I don't know about you guys, but I"m pumped! Defense! Yeah!

I was listening to those TNT guys, and everyone seems to be saying the same thing, Kobe's teammates should not allow themselves to be intimidated by Kobe's star power. I think this win could lead to one of 2 outcomes - a real Laker turnaround, or back to square 1 again. I personally hope for the first....

Bring out the champagne!! but leave it in the storehouse, there is still some business to be taken care of.

GO LAKERS!! U CAN DO IT!!!

Again, Lord please bless the Lakers on Sunday's game. Give them the favor as they find it hard to win on ABC coverage. Jon K, do the hocus pocus to exorcise the dmons at ABC. Go, go ,go Lakers!!!!

THE JACKSON JOURNAL: The Phoenix Suns Series
By Michael C. Teniente

A thumb’s up for Phil Jackson!

THE PHOENIX SERIES GAME THREE

Half Court Basketball for 48 minutes!

‘Nuff Said!

mike

This feels soooooooooo goooooooo!d!
Finally, a win, and very much needed win!
Yeeeeaaaaaahaaaaa!

Who was wearing #54...and what have they done with Kwame Brown?!

In what may be the best game of his career (certainly in his playoff career) Kwame steps up when the team needed him -- dropping 19 points on 8-14 shooting. Odom added 18 and 16 on his own but the most important statistic -- only 12 turnovers. For a team like the Lakers that turn the ball over as much as anyone this is very important.

It's so easy to see what the Lakers need to do to win it's painful sometimes. Guys like Lamar and Kwame don't need to be superstars -- they just have to know their role and play it well. And, as a team, LIMIT THE MISTAKES and they can be really good.

Unfortunately they are one of the most frustrating teams to watch because of how inconsistent they are.

Game 4 Sunday...and you know what they say: it's not a series until a home team loses.

Bench gotta pick it up.
Just did a quick run through Espn boxs core:
In three games, the bench is shooting 16-56, 28% (not including Bynum)

I'm proud of my dawgs tonight. Very proud. I believe in these guys, didn't lose that belief. We're redefining this **** at home.

Go Lakers!~

SUNS FANS, your WINDOW IS CLOSING!!! The team you have won't EVER make it into the FINALS.

Mike T!
great jackson journal! haha. and doont let the haters get to you, you are right about kwame.
GO LAKERS!!!

BIG WIN TONIGHT!!
KEEP IT ROLLING

BELIEVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

U know...as I was looking at the game..i could see the frustration on the faces of the Suns..i mean cmon..you can't get to the foul line if you take jumpers all night. The cocky Suns are going to adjust next game (thats a given) but they are going to need to shoot high 60 percent to win..and the Lakes need to match that with hustle and flow (LOL) Wow 31pts in the 1st and end up with 89pts! That's what I call defense! keep it up Lake Show! Oh and by the way..who ever that was playing in the Kwame Jersey needs to come on back to the Staple Center on sunday

That was some great home court, hand in the face, elbow in the kidney, old school playoff basketball.

How sweet it is.

i'm so proud of those boys

man, i'm so proud

what an effort

free throws, perserverance, defense, intensity, kobe!, camaderie (ya'll see the bench cheering tonight!!!) and friggin KWAME BROWN

boy, one day you'll be a man soon. and that day is today!

I guess if you are only going to play three quarters, let it be 2 - 4. :)
Wow.

Can't wait to see the next Jackson Journal.

NICE WIN, BUT...

I was listening to the radio this morning, and John Ireland came on and was interviewed. He talked about the Lakers' "Town Hall Meeting." According to what he said, Kupchak and Buss were both there and admitted the fact that major changes need to be made. (Maybe AK or BK have more specific details.) My point in this is that despite the great win, despite what the Lakers do in these playoffs, WE CANNOT ACCEPT ANY OF IT AS AN EXCUSE TO NOT MAKE SOME MAJOR CHANGES. Ironically, as much as I wanted the Lakers to win this game (and a championship) I feared it for the fact that the Front Office might use it as an excuse to sit on their hands for yet another summer.

DON'T FORGET WHERE WE REALLY ARE!!!!!!!!!

We need to make major changes, and we can't, as fans, accept anything less from Buss, Kupchak & Co.

CALI KING

Mike T.

Thoroughly enjoyed the journal tonite.

Keep up the good work.

Go Lakers!

Fatty

Now, the big question: CAN WE WIN SUNDAY?

I am getting optimistic now, but scared at the same time....I was so nervous with only 20 second left and we were leading by 6, With an efficient offensive team like Sun, I was sweating hard, afraid they might knock down two tripples....but we won, with great defensive energy!

Can we keep it up for Sunday, and for afterward....?I desperately hope we will...

They should knock out Kwame every game. It seems to light a fire lol, jk. Kwame played like a man! Props!

LOL Mike T ;-) short and sweet.

So like I said, play physical, play with effort, damn...we're bigger, taller, and more physical, every rebound should be ours! And tonight those offensive rebounds kept us in the game, and Kobe closed it out lol.

GO LAKERS!

Bloggers,

Give lots of credit to Phil for tonights win. Great coaching shows. He proved (once again) that he's great at creating mismatches on the court. Putting Shammond on Barbossa was huge. Shammond is a tough player who isn't afraid to play physical defense, and he can actually keep up with Barbossa in the half court.

Phil Jackson is great at making adjustments during playoff series, and I believe it showed tonight. The way the players were trapping Nash on the screen and rolls, and THEN having that extra layer of defense to rotate and help was HUGE tonight!

Let's see if we can carry over this kind of intensity towards Sunday's game 4.

GO LAKERS!!!

great win tonight!
i'm a little surprised by phil's decision to not play ronnie at all, i still think he can provide that much needed energy/hustle/block shots and occasional dunks.......it worked out tongiht w/o him....but i'd rather see him in there for the muscle he brings in....for spot minutes at least...

what a pleasant surprise the freethrowing was--thanks in large part to kobe's 13-13....when's the last time we shot 78% as a team.. (granted kwame, odom, smush didnt get many attempts which helped)

Mike T, you must be loving tonight. Lakers looked good tonight, although it got a little scary down the stretch. I guess that when you have the league's best player propping you up in the fourth quarter you can afford the misses by Shammond and Smush. Good looking game. Sunday is huge. I hope they can pull it out.

PS Has anyone noticed all of the Suns fans mysteriously disappeared? I can't wait to hear the talk radio guys tomorrow morning!! Punks.

Thank you lamar for limiting your 3pt shots to just 3 tongiht!!!! (personally 3 more than i would prefer...but hey you made 1..and your entitled for a couple of freebies)....
lets just say --less outside from you...more inside is always good news for us laker fans....great job on the boards as always!!!!!
please dont revert back to the "inconsistent" lamar for game4....we need you more than anything.....to play well....

great game lakersss!

lol how can u blame the free throw discrepancy on the refs? lol

great game lakersss!

Well maybe we CAN trade off Bynum and Lamar for KG now. Kwame may be able to man the middle after all. If we got a really good older point guard to mentor Farmar for another year or two - A Sam Cassell or D-Fish type - can you imagine what this team would be like with Kwame in the middle playing like he did tonight and KG instead of Lamar at the 4 spot?

Notice how open Kobe got the one time they doubled Lamar. They couldn't double both KG and #24, so one of them would always be that open. I actually think Kwame may be able to be our stopper at the 5 slot after all, and we can go all the way next year IF we pull off the trade for KG. With Garnett being able to opt out in '08, could the Wolves resist Bynum, LO and draft choices?

Remember the scene in Cinderella Man where Braddock has been out of boxing for years and is put in a match at the last second and KO's his opponent? Then Giamatti says "Where have you been Jimmy Braddock?" That's just how I say "Where have you been Kwame Brown?"

laker32

Ronny couldn't play, he was needed desperately on the bench to keep these guys going. The dude most be worn out. Nobody worked harder than Ronny tonite.

Go Ronny
Go Lakers!!

Lakergurl - I've only seen two of your posts, but i think i already LOVE YOU!

GO LAKERS!!!!

Cassell said that LO and Kwame defer too much to Kobe. Okay, maybe they do, but then again LO misses too many jumpers, creates turnovers in the lane (either offensive foul or traveling or he just plain loses the ball) and for Kwame, I don't think I have to say anything.

He then goes on to say that LO is an all-star, but he just needs to take charge and be consistent. Like, duh ? Great insight Sammy. C'mon!!! We need better insight than that, I'm sorry Sammy, but I don't think you'll make it in the broadcasting world.

laker32: I wholeheartedly agree with you.

Man, we needed that win bad. Chick Hearn must be mighty happy right now.

Can you believe that hard foul against Smush at the end of the game? Granted Smush isn't the favorite player around town, but that roughness is uncalled for. It's not like Mike D'Antoni, who is one of my favorite coaches in the game by the way, has anything to complain about. The Suns already had their fun in game two running up the score and laughing when Kobe Bryant got hurt.

To paraphrase Ray Barone, now that the shoe is on the other foot -- stinky and uncomfortable is it not?

Wow - with backs against the wall - we really saw some heart out there. It's 2:40 AM out here on the East and I just finally exhaled after all the emotion. Still can't sleep thought.

Wow. A win on Sunday, a win on Sunday... How sweet that would be.

- Miguelinho

The best thing here is that PJ didnt play with all of them in this game...

he stuck with a short rotation...

we didnt see sasha turiaf tonight. would rather see ronnie than cook the next time.

cook is just zero there. he has no talent whatsoever...

I hope we continue this!

HAVE FAITH BOYS!

What EFFORT guys ! We've got to match again Sunday ! Kwame was agressive from the start and it paid off ! PHXLKRFAN, I can' wait to hear Gamble & Ash whinning tommorrow on local radio here in AZ ! Smush Shammond...double props !!!! LETS GO LAKERS LETS GO LAKERS !!!

Mike T another thumbs up for PJ huh?

thumb’s up for Phil Jackson!

THE PHOENIX SERIES GAME THREE

Half Court Basketball for 48 minutes!

I think you meant 36 minutes, and it had more to do with the lakers getting 19 offensive rebounds than PJs coaching but we appreciate your consistent analysis.

Mike T., your boy was amazing!

Shammond, what are you doing taking contested 22 footers??

Smush, good defense? what?

Kobe, takin it to the hole

Lamar, being aggressive

would have liked to see more from luke

The Lake Show's last intense rivalry was with the Kings.

Who can forget when Shaq dubbed them the Queens?

If the Purple and Gold get the next one and cool off the Suns.

When their red-hot offense fizzles out, what do you have?

The Phoenix Tangerines!

My eyesight ain't so good but those blazin' balls of fire on their jerseys are beginning to look like cute fruits to me.

WHAT A GAME!!!

We won with Shammond, Cook and Smush getting big minutes in the second half. WOW! Can you imagine anyone else in the league besides Kobe beating the Suns with that group? Although Shammond and Smush couldn't buy a basket, they're defensive intensity was HUGE! Smush was actually fighting through screens, and was acitve on D.

I thought the game was lost when Kwame went down, but he pulled a mini Willis Reed for his team. Michael T. must've spewed in his pants after tonight. LOL.

Kobe, Lamar and Kwame were aggresive near the basket, which led to foul calls. FINALLY! Props to Kwame for playing through the pain. Phil redeemed himself for his awful coaching in game 2.

KEEP HOPE ALIVE!!! KOBE AND CREW WILL SHOCK THE WORLD!!!!

Ha! I missed the Journal on the scroll down. I was looking for like a gazillion Kwame references. and a couple of "i told you so's" I much prefer the shorter version. This one will at least be read. :)

It's not even a series. Lakers are going to lose the next two games. You heard it here first. See you guys in the preseason! The only chance the Lakers have is in the free agency market this year. They will be blown out next game...

The Kobe Bryants will NOT take this series.

A team can beat a spoiled, selfish superstar and a few role-players.

Can Brown play defense for more than one game? Evidence suggests no. Can Kobe care more about winning than scoring points? Evidence suggests no. Can Bryant play D? Evidence suggests no. Can Kobe ...

SHARE THE LIMELIGHT WITH SOMEONE ELSE?

The evidence says decisively no.

The Lakers have an aging, bad-knees and ankles superstar in a position where age takes a toll. Shaq may not be that mobile but he's still huge. YOU try to budge him out of the paint. Right now Shaq is more valuable to the Heat than Kobe to the Bryant Lakers.

Not only is Nash a better player, but he has a team, coached by a guy who wants to win (Phil is clearly burnt out) and a team hungry top to bottom to win and get a ring.

Bryant literally would rather lose and be "the man" than have someone else be the toast of LA. Ever wonder why no star player will come here?

I hope, as a long time Lakers fan that the Lakers get blown out this round with only one game as a win. So that finally the Lakers will wise up, get what little they can for Bryant and start to rebuild around team play, team players, and the spirit that made this team great.

The worst thing for Lakers fans would "just enough" success to keep that cancer on the team around.

Smush, Walton, Odom are all good guys, prepare hard, play hard. But it's Kobe's team and they know they can't score too many points (not a problem for anyone but Odom) or else Kobe will be upset. The Suns will work Kobe harder next game, and that will be that.

YOU (including the Laker fans) a well deserve pat in the back...

Seriously,
- but just so you know... that's the first and last taste of win you will ever have. See you in SUNDAY.

Mike T,

Did you see where is JOREMA the great, I want to know whatever reaction he/she got. After this good game with Kwame I believe he will hide somewhere else and keep his/her mouth shout-off till the next game..

Bonie - I'd like to see you slapping the face of Kwame Brown in Staples Center, in front of all people around the world, you just make my day when you swear to your god that you will slap Kwame when he do another lay-up. What I jerk you are.

derek,
Be careful about too much praise for Phil. Remember, the master manipulator was the one rotating in players during the 1st 2 games. After 4 games this season and a 7 game playoff last year. What exactly did he learn after the 1st two games that he didn't know before the series started???

I want to give Phil full credit for his 9 rings, but I think the jury is still way out on how he coaches young players and why he delegates defensive coaching to assistant coaches.

THE SUNS EXPOSED!!!!

Just a great game. The Lakers looked like the team from earlier in the season. Now does this mean they are on the way to a championship? Probably not. Will the Suns win it all? Probably not. As a matter of fact SUNS FANS the suns chances of winning a championship are not any better then the Lakers and tonight the Lakers showed why. The Suns are built to have agreat regular season but in the playoffs the game changes. Teams that can control the paint and play D win championships. If the Suns get past us, they will not get past the Spurs or the Mavs and the Lakers showed why tonight. So we have the formula, swarm nash, pound the ball inside and hit the glass. This isnt the first time Kwame has shown an offensive game and hopefull he will bring it again sunday.

And isnt it great to have the haters and the suns fans shut up for a night? For the haters out there, this is how Kobe elevates the play of his teammates. He had 6 assists to 13 by nash but when he is scoring within the flow of the offense it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the Defensive team. Keep it up Kobe you might have to score 40 every night but as long as it is done within the flow like tonight, it opens up oppurtunities for everyone.

Our Motto for the rest of the series should be, TAKE IT TO THE PAINT!!!

MH

Thank you FSN for rebroadcasting it right now. I'm glued to the tv. It's 1 am!! I can now finally watch what I missed because of my frigging job. Thank you K brothers for the good audio. Thank you lakers fans!God bless!!

THE GUNNER PLAYED GREAT TONIGHT.

He looked just like Jordan tonight. That's all Kobe needs to do. I was proud of him tonight.

Get his team involved early and the ONE THING THAT STOOD OUT IN HIS GAME TONIGHT?

HE DIDN'T SETTLED FOR THE JUMPSHOT. HE ATTACKED THE INSIDE AND TOOK FOULS WHICH WAS VINTAGE JORDAN. GETTING TO THE FREE THROW LINE AND CONTROLLING THE GAME.

BTW....WHERE'S THAT NASH FOR MVP GUY?

HE'S NO WHERE TO BE FOUND TODAY!

IF KOBE CAN PLAY LIKE THIS EVERYGAME, THEN HIS TEAM WILL CONTINUE TO ESTABLISH CONFIDENCE.

I'M JUST WORRIED WHEN I SEEN SMUSH IN THERE LATE IN THE GAME.

Another thought wouldnt it be great to have a stretch of about 5 minutes were we play a zone and have Lamar, Andrew and Kwame in the front court, that would be match up hell for the Suns. Suns are not effective when the pace slows and they are forced to make jump shots. Just another wrinkle we could throw at them.

MH

We're not back in the series until we win Game 4, IMO.

E

This one's good for a few laughs now...

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/88447

Hope our point guards will shoot better than 0 for 11 in the next game.

GO LAKERS!

Another troll coming out of the woodwork - Jim Rockford...why do you have to spit that regurgitated b.s. in this blog on the day Kobe, Kwame and Lamar saved LA?

Idiot

Just great. Now we know the Lakers will be sent packing in Phoenix. Memories never fade away.

the suns WON'T shine on sunday.........coz they will be struck by thunder and lightning of the purple and gold.............ALLEZ LAKERS!!!
MAKE THEM KNEEL TO YOU!!!!

LAKERS WIN = EVERYBODY HAPPY.

woooo hoooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

win the next one and go back to phoenix with the pressure ALL on the suns...go lakers!!!!!

LAKER FANS,
I have one thing to say: MIKE T. I APOLOGIZE,
YOU CALLED IT. WE DO NEED KWAME BROWN
AND THANK GOD HE CAME THROUGH.
FAITH, WOW, KIWI, BAYWOOD, ZAKEE
TALIQ, BREKELEY LAKER, EDWIN GUECO,
KEIFO, TALIQ, RESPECTMYAUTHORITH
I KNOW YOUR POSITIVE ENERGY HAD SOMETHING
TO DO WITH THIS WIN SO SPECIAL PROPS TO YOU.
I KNOW IT'S A BAD PUN BUT...YOU GOTTA HAVE FAITH!
LAKERS TODAY LAKERS TOMORROW LAKERS FOREVER
GO LAKESHOW GO

HEART. Resilience. PASSION. Desire. Collective EFFORT. That's what makes champions. And oh yeah,a lot of Kobe.

Great Game fellas! Keep it up on Sunday. take care of home court. Then snatch game 5 back from the Suns!

But, I think the keys of the win last night besides the great defensive efforts are (1) go to the paint and get the Suns in early foul troubles. (2) Kwame rediscovered his ability to dunk the ball instead of those point-blank misses.

Greetings, craigp here

HOW BOUT DEM LAKERS!!!!!!!

HOW BOUT DAT KWAME!!!!!
HOW BOUT DAT ODOM!!!!!!

THose are the Lkaers we all know and love.

I have some thoughts.

I wanted to adress MR Charles Barkely, Sir Charles Barkley (by the way, people need to stop adressing him as CHuckster, anything less than adressing him as "Sir Charles" is uncivilized.

I have a major problem with his analgoy that the Lkaers are a Michaeal Jackson with a bunch of TItos. (byt the way all 5 fo the Jackson 5 are awesome)

The Lakers have a SOLID TEAM.

Lamar Odom has demonstrated all star level play both defensively and offensivle. He needs to work on consistency and bad turnovers. He continues to play AWESOME in this series.

Luke Walton has demonstrated ALL STAR LEVEL PLAY AT THE OFFENSIVE END. ANyone who disagrees with this simply does not know basketball. Luke needs to work at his defense and I thought he did an adequate job last night. I would have liked to see him CONTEST THE SHOTS more. He just stood there and watched his man shoot a couple of times THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE!

Kwame Brown needs to continue to be the MONSTER he was.

As far as the point guard guard spot, I have to say I was looking at SMush Parkers numbers and I didnt realize that he shoots 36.5% from the three point line. THAT iS EXCELLENT!. There are not too many guards that shoot better than 36.5% also his turnovers are very low at 1.9 per game. Those are excellent numbers and he has good size and he is athletic.

I like Farmar a lot too, I think he can provide a lot of offensive punch.

I think a tandem role of those depending on matchups and whose got it going serves the LKAERS very well.

I though Chamon WIlliams gave them a nice lift with his defensive play but I like the LKaers chances better with Parker or Farmar in the game as opposed to Williams but thats just me.

Also in fairness to the SUns, I thoguht the Lkaers got a lot of calls last night. I suppose that makes up for game 2. Game 1 I thought was very fairly officiated. Hopefully the rest of the series the officials will officate like they did in game 1.

I thought Steve Nash had a really tough call go agaisnt him late in the game at a crucial time.

The AMERICAN EDUCATED, NORTH AMERICAN BORN, 2 time MVP Steve Nash who has no discernable Canadian accent, had an off night and the SUns still almost won. The LKaers have to be careful of over-confidence.

MY message to the Lakers, STAY HUNGRY STAY MOTIVATED, STAY SHARP, PLay

I was also happy to see they did not take Charles Barkelys advice and make any dirty plays on Barbosa. If they did that I would have to start rooting for the Suns

One Love!!

Also I want to say the PIstons looked REALLY GOOD last night

I have never seen a playoffs whrere so many teams looks so sharp and so hungry and so focussed and are playing with so much honor at such a high level

I love this game

The first quarter was mixed. We got off to that lousy start, capped by the bogus non call of that obvious goal tending that led to a four point swing, putting us down by 11. Then, we managed to go down by 17. For a while, we were just playing...

Then the magical second quarter where all of our guys turned into Ronny Turiaf out there! I haven't seen this for a very long time if ever. Even Kwame played with intensity. This is what we've been saying all along!

That energy DID start to fade and had faded significantly by the end of the game. By that time though, the suns weren't doing themselves any favors, I think it had disrupted their game.

I never saw Kwame move so fast like he did last night.

We also have room to improve, there were several possessions where guys were getting lost on defense. I remember specifically at least three defensive sequences where Kwame was looking around trying to find someone to guard.

You can look at that in two ways... the other 4 guys covered well on those rotations, OR Phoenix played out of position off the ball. I'd say probably a combination of the two. Phoenix WILL adjust.

I liked what Kenny said. He said back in the day, the Rockets knew they could play a consistent 8 level intensity, never allow themselves to drop down to a 6, and they know they have that 9 or 10. He said the Lakers came in tonight with that 9 or 10, and the question is, what level will Phoenix come in at on Sunday.

For about 2 and a half quarters, we were at a 9 or 10, and look at how much that disrupted them. Also, I was very pleased we didn't settle for the outside J and kept attacking the rim.

I thought we went with Smush and Shammond a little too long... about five minutes too long. It's important if we want to keep the intensity up, to keep fresh legs on their PGs (nash, barbosa). I also liked the three guard lineup for defense, as Phoenix is NOT a post up type of team.

They could have posted up Barbosa or Nash, but they don't play that way... PJ, Lakers, great way to play up their weakness!

One last thing, generic_one... thanks for the props last night! Hope Seattle is treating you well!

The Kobe-lovers have to admit that one of these three possibilities is true:

1) The Lakers (not including Kobe) really are good enough teammates to win games, and saying that they don't have the talent to win is a lie.

or

2) One player really can win games on his own, and Kobe shares part of the responsibility for the Laker's wretchedness the last three years.

of

3) This was a fluke, and a team like this could never win these big games consistently.

So, all ya'all on Kobe's jock. Which one of the three options is correct?

It wasnt just defense Faith, the lakers had 19 offensive rebounds, take half of those away and Phoenix wins the game. But I will admit this is the best defense this team has played all year, lets see them keep it up for another game.

Fire the guards unable to defend and trade up to drafy Corey Brewer. The perimeter defense would be great over night with Kobe, Corey out top and Lamar, Luke, and Kwame (Andrew) inside.

ENJOY IT

LA GUY
I would have to go with option 1. Yes they do have the talent to win consistently but it is all up to Kobe to have the patience to play with them. So yes they have the talent to be a 50 plus win team but with Kobe not playing as a Team half of the games of the year. They will always be mediocre and none of this young talent will have time to develop.

Then again it probably was a fluke

Good Morning Laker Nation
Feels good this morning. We had a game that we haven't seen since January.
The bodies are healed (somewhat).

Confucious say, "Man who run in front of car get tired; man who run behind car get exhausted."

To bad for the Suns; Lakers were driving last nite!!

FINE PERFORMANCE ALL AROUND BY OUR BOYS! GO LAKERS!!

And just for s**ts & giggles:

KWA-ME! KWA-ME! KWA-ME!

Yes, it was a good game, but we are still facing certain doom:

The Jim Buss/Cupcake regime!!

From Dave Smith, www.thesportsgod.com:

"Last week, I heard Jim Buss and Mitch Cupcake say one of the funniest things I've ever heard: "When we're healthy, we can compete with anyone in the NBA, including the Suns, Spurs and Mavericks." When I recovered from my fit of laughter, a sense of doom arrived....

If these two are in such denial that they actually believe the Lakers are on the right track and only injuries prevented them from another World Championship, then the future is indeed bleak for this franchise....
Do they honestly believe Kobe and a surrounding cast of Kwame Brown/Andrew Bynum, Luke Walton, Smush Parker/Jordan Farmar and Lamar Odom is suddenly going to come together and defeat a Suns team featuring Steve Nash, Leandro Barbosa, Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion? If they really believe this, then Jerry Buss needs to call a few guys with butterfly nets to take them away....

If they think they can sell this nonsense, they are totally incompetent and need to be shown the door; if not, they're lying to their fan base and should be s***-canned....

Are you getting the impression I feel major changes are needed in the organization?....

Even if Cupcake is s***-canned after the season, Laker fans should not begin celebrating; because Jim Buss will take over as the decision-maker for basketball operations....

Imagine that....

It seems like yesterday that Jerry West called the shots and the Lakers were winning titles. Now, the organization is one step away from putting the younger Buss in charge. Do you think teams around the NBA are shaking in their boots?....

A guy who once trained horses for a living and has spent most of his adult life on the Sunset Strip will be handed the controls of one of the most storied franchises in sports history? God help us all...."

Amen to that!

BRYANT/GARNETT '07

BK
You called it on NBATV, and you also Missed it!

Call: We will win if we get a 3rd option

Miscall: Kwame can't catch the ball, which we all said; but you are supposed to be the Pro

LOL

Mike T.

How come this time the Journal is so short, after a huge win like this? I like reading your nicely analysis. Bring a big one here.

Time to start thinking about our MVB "Most Valuable Blogger".
The voting booth is open.
Baywood

I got the feeling Like is due for a Kwame-type blowiut tomorrow. X you fingers

I have to give the Lakers credit for this past game. However, I would be very weary about this win. Kobe had to put in 45 and Kwame had the game of his life and the bench still provided very very little in terms of scoring, plus they won by six points. The Suns go to the free throw line a few more times and hit two more shots this game is already over. It took EVERYTHING the Lakers had to win by six so be sure to take it with a grain of salt. Nonetheless they did expose the Suns lack of size, played great defense, and Kwame actually DID something. Still, SUNS IN SIX.

l

greetings craigp here

One more thing on LUUUUUUUKE Walton

The disparity in the Lakers' record with Walton versus without Walton
is CONSIDERABLE much like Walton's shoulders.

And any analysis of the Lakers that for whatever reason chooses to ignore his massive contribution, I simply have no respect for.

And any comments about the lakers being a one man show are absoultely disgusting. At times this year Kobe has taken on that role for legitimate reasons. However to create the impression that the Lkaers are generally speaking a "one man show" is HIGHLY INACCURATE.

Years ago Kenny SMith astutely labelled Lamar Odom as "The goods" as soon as he came out, and I think Kenny SMith was SPOT ON with that.

WOW,

It feels good to be a Laker Fan again.

Let's Go Laker's

Phil almost lost me, but I will have to say that he did a pretty good job coaching last night

I see this game more as an indictment of jackson and the lakers than the suns. Cmon, the lakers can play this way and they've won only two games (including last nite) against teams with winning records since the allstar break?? Time to fire Jackson!

The Lakers got a break last night when BLACK JESUS (THATS AMARE TO DISBELIEVERS, LET ME KNOW IF I CAN SEND BLACK JESUS LITERATURE HAHAHAHA) was taken out of action with foul trouble. The kobes were desperate, a cornered, wounded animal, and the Suns played a terrible 2nd half - and still nearly won. And Sunday, why, it's church day. BLACK JESUS SERMON TO BE DELIVERED!!!

NEXT STEP TO THE 2007 NBA FINALS

M V 3 "BETTER THAN MAGIC JOHNSON" GNASHTY AND THE SUNS SIDE OF THE FORCE

VS.

PHIL "IF ONLY WE HAD SHAQ, OR MJ, WE COULD WIN ANOTHA GAME" JACKSON AND HIS OVERPAID UNDERACHIEVERS

52.3 HOURS

WOW,

It feels good to be a Laker Fan again.

Let's Go Laker's

Phil almost lost me, but I will have to say that he did a pretty good job coaching last night

The Lakers are not missing Defensive talent, they are missing Offensive talent.

The guys we have on the team are above average defenders...except for Cookie

Kobe, Lamar, Kwame, Ronny, Luke, Smush, Farmar, Shammond, Sasha, Mo, Bynum...all these guys are good defenders. Don't forget that defense earlier this year was pretty good when there weren't injuries. We have an all defensive team that's been sidetracked by injuries.

What the Lakers lack is a true 2nd scorer. One who says he wants XX touches a game and 20 points every night. Since Shaq left, you never hear about "getting touches".

I still believe the Lakers are taking this series.

Bye bye sissySuns, Hello Lakers!

LA Guy,

If you had been paying attention to the post game comments, you'd know the answer. Way to make yourself look like a moron though, keep it up!

I hope the Lakers yelled at Smush after the game. There was no reason to give the Suns any anger like that going into game 4. Absolute BUSH LEAGUE

The crowd changes everything. We got some crowd influenced reffing last night. Back when you could call it playoff reffing but that changed last year with D Wade getting the famous free throw championship.

You're not going to ref away a W from a surging Laker team on Jack's birthday. We're bigger, stronger and longer but that only works if they're callin' it the way the playoffs should be called.

Let 'em run wild in the regular season when little Stevie wins his awards, but when it comes to winnin' time, they should be pissin' blood by halftime.

For MVB Most valuable Blogger I nominate FAITH

AK & BK,

Any chance you guys are working on some sort of membership registration for this blog, so that trolls could be filtered out. I would look forward to taking part in a blog where Laker fans could passionately but intelligently and respectfully engage in debate about the status of their team.

Check out http://www.celticsblog.com/ for what I'm talking about (ironically, I went on there to talk trash, but couldn't, and ended up being quite jealous really of what those fans get to participate in).

Wow Jim,

Worst episode of the Rockford files ever. Now I now why you got cancelled.

Hahah, nice spin on the game Butler. Unfortunately, your boy Amare caused his own pain, he should have just let the Lakers posterize him, instead he had to foul.

The Phoenix problem is you only have 1 big man who plays great. That is IT. All the Lakers have to do is throw Bynum, Kwame, LO, Ronny, Kobe in there and there's no way Amare can avoid foul trouble. Look for Amare to be out of the 2nd and 3rd quarters as well.

The Lakers have the Suns #. Pound it on the inside, and then jump the screens on Nashy.

MVwannabeNashy folded under the Smushcalade effect last night. Barbs now has to deal with the Shammond.

There's your "MVP" for you...getting outplayed by the 6th man 3 games in a row.

Lakers in 6!

that was a great game, but it could have been better. laker's could have kept the suns below 80 points.

lamar had a great time rebounding and rightly so.

hope the lakers can cover the parimeter shooters better that last night.

GO LAKERS!

BUTLER!! Go F!*K YOUR MOTHER......SUNS ARE THE WORST TEAM IN THE HX OF THIS SPORT BITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SUNDAY TIED 2-2!

hahahah @ kobeoutin5

smush was bush league? wtf.. dont be a hypocrite, how can u stand behind ur coach after that.. so ur saying u APPROVE of isiah's hard foul against the nuggets?? if u ask me... mike d's decision was 10x worse!

think about it.. the knicks were gettin creamed, it was a laugher, and the nuggets were running up the score (something your team LOVES to do btw)

and the lakers? dude u guys were TRYIN TO WIN THE DAMN GAME JUST THE PLAY BEFORE! it wasnt an inbounds pass or anything, it was a freakin rebound and lob! ANYONE has a right to dunk that.. and it wasnt rub it in ur face slam either, u can tell the difference.. this was much more about the lakers making their presence felt..

peace out, hope u enjoy backing mike "the coach with double standards" dantoni!!

Awesome Effort!
Kwame, we have been waiting for this to happen, and better late than never. Keep up the good work, Kobe was back to being energetic everywhere and shot a great percentage. Getting to the line is where he changes games. Now that is the Kobe we all know and love.
Phil, wow- great speech! Whatever happened worked. Shammond you earned minutes- just don't shoot. You have a superstar next to you that is better and in my opinion, give him the rock. Kobe averaging 45 is our best hope to date. He had that MJ look in his eye! Keep up the good work. Winning cures a lot of pain.

"If you had been paying attention to the post game comments, you'd know the answer. Way to make yourself look like a moron though, keep it up!"

Ha! You think that I spend my time reading 500 comments? What do you do with your life?

Man, Smush's dunk attempt at the game was great motivation for the Lakers.

He was sending a message

We ain't quiting til the buzzer sounds
This is not love, this is war
You guys are too small in the pants to play with the big boys
And yeah, we'll punk you at ANY opportunity you give us...in the first minute or in the last second

You guys are lucky Raja got that free foul, the Staples Center would have erupted with a sick Smush dunk and Nashy and the Phx fans probably would have cried again like they did last year.

But I am the first to welcome ANY and ALL Phoenix fans to this blog. Please join us for some good 'ol fan trash talk.

Your words are meaningful after a Lakers loss but after a Lakers win, I can only laugh at your futile attempts. Especially reading the Sunsfans board, I can see the crying already about the officials instead of the lack of hustle by their players.

Baywood

It should be the "BOY" awards for blogger of the year

There should be at least 3 categories:

Long Form Lecture "BoY" nominations like Mke T, Laker Tom, JJ and others.

Short Form: nominations would have to include ex, andrew z, Faith... and the rest of the quippy crew

Humanitarian BoY: Edwin G has to lead these nominations

naturally it's all open for debate

KOBEOUTIN5

If the Suns would have tried to run the score up in the last game, then I might had some sympathy and I might have gotten mad at Smush.

But since the SUNS ran the score up like that I don't care that Smush tried to lay the hammer down.

All Smush did was let you guys know and open or eyes up to the fact that a war has started at the Staples Center and if somebody doesn't watch out they can get there feels hurt.

Bring it on my brother, Kobe and the LAKE sHOW ARE NOW WAITING.!!!!!!!!!!

That was only the beginning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dunk on them again at the end of te game SMUSH!!!!!!!!!!!

I care 2 shi----------- about how the SUNS feel. I hope they are pissed off more then ever, becasue the game that they played the other night was the best they played ever and they can't repeat that performance again.

LET'S GO LAKER'S
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP

KOBEOUTIN5,

Take a look at your Suns organization and your fans if you want Bush league. You guys cheer when an opponent gets hurt, talk about the lowest of the low-class.

SUNS FANS are pretty quiet now. Where are you now trolling this blog? hahahahahha.
The Lakers planted the seed of fear in their minds. Now they are realizing they are not that amazing team. Sorry Suns, I see another season without a title.
I feel good because now I know Amare, D'antoni, Raja, Marion and Nash are not laughing at the Lakers, like they did at game 2.
I knew it, karma will eventually get them, now it's just a matter of time to see them going into summer vacation early.
even if the Lakers don't win this series, I am 99.99% sure they will not be the champions.
hahahahahahaha

Yep off nights 12 pts 14 assts. Very unMVp like

Does any1 want to comment on Smush's lack of Respect?

Hey Brandon

Tell Smush to dunk it again at the end of the game.

I can't stand the Suns and I hope that they are angry at that.
They can't get to the level that they did the other day anymore becasue now we know what to look out for.

Plus on top of all of that they already showed all there cards which is not good

Hey Brandon

Tell Smush to dunk it again at the end of the game.

I can't stand the Suns and I hope that they are angry at that.
They can't get to the level that they did the other day anymore becasue now we know what to look out for.

Plus on top of all of that they already showed all there cards which is not good

Wow. The Lakers really showed some fire last night. They were distinctly playing harder than their opponents.

Well played.

This raises the questions for Game 4 on Sunday:

-- Will the Lakers retain and sustain that intensity?
-- When Phoenix matches thier intensity, can the Lakers execute?
-- If the calls don't go the Lakers way like they did last night, can they continue to push through and play.

Basically, can they continue to play hard despite the inevitable setbacks that will come?

It's easy to play hard when things are going your way, and the crowds into it, but can you keep doing that if you feel like you aren't getting any calls, if the shots aren't dropping?

The Lakers have really done themselves proud, but will they feel that's enough, and lose that "backs against the wall" feeling.

Here's where we find the answer to the blank:
When the going gets tough, the Lakers get __________ .

Do you guys realize we've endured about 5 or 6 straight weeks of TROLLS?

My gosh, the pain just doesn't stop.... at least until tonight when da bulls win game 3!

And what's this talk about playing the Spurs? Folks, I'd love to get there, we need to win three straight starting right now (which would make four)... but that's not my beef, the Spurs? Are you guys blind? Do I have to spell it out for you, the Nuggets will win the next two, go up 3-1 and then find a way to close em out. If PJ were coaching the Nuggets, they'd win the title.

Ok, fellow bloggers. Before we all get too excited, we have to ask ourselves, WHY did it take until Game 3 of the Playoffs to see all this energy, determination, and discipline. Why does Kobe have to play 45 minutes to get a narrow win on our home court? If Kwame can play at this high level, why not do it more often?

Sure, I'm happy we got a W, and the broom can go back in the closet. But we know the Suns won't be napping on Sunday. It will require even more energy, determination, and discipline to win Game 4. Does this squad have it in them to play at an even HIGHER level?

No matter what the outcome, big changes are still needed next season. Kupkake still needs to walk the gangplank. And all the pretenders on the team need to be tossed over the side with him.

tim-4-show/jawarski, great post from yesterday. i actually agree with you more than disagree.

for true laker fans, yesterday was a great preformance, even from kobe "me first" bryant. for one night, it was kobe "we first" bryant; especially in the 1st quarter. i was expecting kid kobe to jack up shot after shot, but kobe stuck with the game plan, got the TEAM involved (even when they were bricking).......then guess what? everyone played hard and with a purpose. for one night, we were closer to the Showtime Lakers rather than the Show-boating Time Lakers. There were a few posession at the end of the game where i thought, here we go again with kobe "me first" bryant. here's the sequence, run the offense for 5 seconds, kobe takes 10 dribbles (gets doubled), then jacks up a bad shot. lucklily, it was only one or two posessions.

I'll admit, i was impressed with the laker team; but we're not out of the woods yet. Game 2 is equally important.

ZAKEE I WITH YOU
LET'S GO LAKER'S
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP
LET'S GO LAKER'S
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP

LAKER FANS,
Careful, accept our win with the class befiiting The Lakers
and not the Class befitting the Suns which we all know is NO CLASS
LAKERS TODAY LAKERS TOMORROW LAKERS FOREVER
GO LAKE SHOW GO !

I can't believe ESPN, especially the brillant Henry Abbot. He talks about how the Lakers may have gotten favorable calls against Phoenix last night.

http://myespn.go.com/profile/truehoop?archiveId=23&entryId=125

He even states in the beginning of the article that he didn't watch this game, yet he has the nerve to write about it?! This is not responsible journalism in my opinion. Where was this type of article when Wade got all those phantom calls in the Finals? Or more recently, that Dallas/Warriors game where both B. Davis and S. Jackson got ejected?! Unbelievable.

You know You're a Troll when:

You think a way to win an NBA title is by building around role players.

You get your jollies by visiting message boards just so that you can distrupt conversation, this helps you get attention that you don't get from everyday people.

You think Steve Nash is better than Magic Johnson

You think Shaq is the greatest to ever play the game

You think the Suckramento Queens are a better franchise than the Lakers

You have a selective memory

Your IQ is so low you can count the number on one of your hands.

You use words like gunner, ball-hog, and brokebackers

The only people who actually agree with you, are you (under a different ID)

TP you are right. We totally try to run up the score. Thats why Nash only played 25 mins in game 2. and PAT BURKE was in the line up the whole 4th qtr. You are so right. And what the hell does Isiah Thomas...an Easter Conference coach not even in the playoffs have to do with Smush being an idiot. Next time type what you were thinking and read it before you hit post.

You know what should make us scared? The lakers played horribly and beat us. There players 3-12 shot a combine 3 for 24. That is 12.5%, and they still took it to us. Imagine if we dont get the majority of the calls and they actually make a few baskets, we should have lost this game by 25 or more. Who is Kwame and why do we make him look like an allstar? Why was steve traveling or throwing the ball away so consistently. The lakers played Shammond Williams more than their starting guard who has only been starting 3 games and they won. Shammond was 0 for the game, which was happening allover the laker lineup and they still killed us. If they play like they did on thursday and they hit some shots we are in trouble. Why do the announcers keep on saying what a great post defender Amare is? This guy cheats over on every play. Kwame made him pay for that. It's been obvious all season that he cant stay with anyone one on one, especially he plays behind them. Barbosa (7 for 18) was probably the best player on the floor for us adn he had an abysmal shooting night. WE ARE IN TROUBLE!(Chris7883, April 27, 2007 09:19AM)

Fkillah
Are you mad that he did not watch it and knew the referring was bad or that you did watch it and Know the referring was lopsided?

Arnold:

If Kwame Brown play every night...
A 75 % of how he played last night,
nobody will question his heart and commitment to the team.
So, let's wait. Please, be cautious with Kwame.
As far as I remember...
Llast year he started that same way in the playoffs ,
same with Lamar, and at the end
he was miserable and dumb again.

If Kwame play everyday like he played last night,
he can get 12 to 14 million from any team.

But can you BE confident that he will repeat this perfomance?.
Not realy. CONSISTENCE IS THE STAMP OF A ALLSTAR.
Kwame play great in lapses, the same with Lamar,
that's why we don't trust them both to put us in the top.

Imagine what team the Lakers can be with a player alongside Kobe
giving us 20 and 12 consistently.
Just imagine.

it's (1) - the Lakers do have a good team - remember the team that started 15-6 and beat all the top teams before injuries set them back? Well those injuries are lingering and still affecting the team, but they are slowly getting better - KWA-ME, KWA-ME!

Although I do agree that Kupcake should be fired on Radman alone -why does the team need such a one-dimensional player? IMO they should have spent the money on a defensive-minded point guard, but what do i know... i bet on the Lakers to win this series (pays 13 x 1 and i figured their chances were about 1 in 4, depending primarily in my mind upon Kwame's health & impact).

Well after the 1st Q i thought it was over, i didn't want to watch any more and thought about changing stations... but glad i didn't - come on guys, (esp Kwame!) do this 3 more times and send the Suns packing!

gugy, fear is a little strong. let's wait until Game 4. let's not forget, Suns did what they were suppose to do, so did the Lakers.

Zakee, i'm a laker fan. Suns didn't run up the score. Lakers simply sucked AND Suns were on that night. What smush did wasn't smart, although I expect bad feelings in Game 4 which should create a good show. Smush is kind of a lame player. he reminds me of the guy from the street who goes into a coporate environment, but can't change. what's the expression you can take the guy (gal) out of the trailer park (getto, etc), but can't take the trailer park out of the guy.

favorable calls? IMO the Suns got just as many favorable (non) calls as the Lakers - yes the Lakers went to the line more, but that doesn't mean they didn't get fouled (a lot) with no whistles - overall it seems the refs "let them play" and I think a close analysis of the game would show just as many non calls for the Lakers as Suns.

jorema, nice post......for once j/k.

One way to look at the series so far; Lakers have won 5 out of 12 quarters. And had they won 6 (4th Q of game 1) they'd be up 2 games to 1 right now.
IMO Suns are VERY lucky Kobe was cold in Game1 Q4 or this series would have a very different feel to it.
But this shows, 5 out of 12 against a supposedly championship caliber team is not bad at all - with a little better health & consistency, plus one or two role-players coming along with their development, I do believe Kupcake and Buss are right - this team can play with any team in the league. Why we have Radman is a mystery to me, maybe it's for the aura. But other than that this team is really not half bad. IMO.

by Nick (near the top of this page)'s logic, Game 1 was given by the refs to the Suns (24 FTs to 11) and he may be right!

Hello bloggers the following is my post to one of the geniuses journalist of the Phoenixsuns.

Mamba24fan4life
Hey Scottie boy, do you have anything to say...?
D'ont you ever, ever doubt the heart of a champion. You see all those banners hanging at Staples? They inspire. Next time wait till the end of a serie before celebrating, morron... It doesn't matter if the Lakers lose the serie, they're less than half of a team with all their injuries anyway, but you know what they showed your team flaws last night, and the other teams are watching. Suns are not about to win a championship,nope, And by the way: How many years do you think Nash have left in him?

Go Lakers!!! I'm proud to be a fan because you're a classy franchise.

Mamba from the eastcoast Suggest removal of this comment April 27, 2007

KOBEOUTIN5,

Im mad b/c anyone who actually watched the game saw that the Lakers earned their victory. After all, when you pound the ball inside, outrebound the other team by 16, and play hard defense, you tend to win ball games. Kobe was attacking, Kwame Brown got point blank dunks. The officiating was not lopsided at all. The game was tied 89-89 around the minute mark. What happened then? Did the officiating challenge the outcome? I'm especially mad b/c this article is uncalled for, especially after a hard-earned victory.

Wow! What a game. I'm really proud of the LAKERS. After game 3 blow-out, I was a little weary about watching the game since its starts at 10:30 EST here in Canada. Got tired of watching my team loss and waking up tired the next morning.

But the Lakers came through. Hopefully, they can continue their success and strategy through-out this series.

I believe if the Lakers can win on Sunday, they might be able to pull an upset. The Suns are arrogant and full of them self. They should know better. Last year they came back from a 3-1, why shouldn't the Lakers be any different.

Sure they have had their up and plenty of downs, but don't underestimate the heart of a champion. Hope the “game 3” LAKERS show up on “game 4”. Look for the match-up to become very interesting and possibly become a series. Go Lakers!

PS :
Waterboy,
Thanks for the link.

mamba from the eastcoast

"IMO Suns are VERY lucky Kobe was cold in Game1 Q4 or this series would have a very different feel to it."

If you are relying on Kobe to shoot 60% every quarter of every game you want to win, then you are in for a harsh reality check.

Most important things in this game for us:

1) Offensive rebounds
2) Defense
3) Not settling for jumpshots
4) Ball Movement

1 - We killed them on the offensive boards. Wow. How good is Kwame when he is aggressive about rebounding? In the first two games there were waaay too many shots that went up with only Suns underneath the rim - seems like everyone was too worried about getting beat back down the floor, they were giving them the rebounds. WRONG IDEA. If you contest the rebounds, they can't break as much on you, to begin with. They might get the lucky break every once in a while, but generally you will slow them up.

2- Just another dimension of defense; probably the most important adjustment was switching on screens. Our big guys are quick, so they can actually switch on Nash for short amounts of time and still defend him. By the same token, our quick guys are big (except Jordan), so they can switch on Amare for short amounts of time (with help) and still present an effective defense. I didn't see too many uncontested layups, which is good - I don't think you can eliminate those completely, but you can minimize them.

3- We took it to the hole, plain and simple. Across the board - Lamar, Jordan, Kobe, even Kwame was dunking it rathen that just putting it up off the glass. When we shoot outside, it's basically a turnover 50% of the time. When we pound it inside, we get fouls on Amare and Thomas, we shoot a better percentage, and we set up teammates for easier shots. Those four dunks Kwame had were spectacular, but they were easy - he just caught it and dunked it. That's all he needs to do - he doesn't need to beat anyone off the dribble, he doesn't need to shoot fadeaways or anything else - just catch it and dunk it, and this offense will get you 10-12 points a night. Whatever you can do on top of that is gravy.

4- We played as a team. While I disagree with Sir Charles that we need to try to outgun the Suns, I do agree that walking the ball up and playing Kobe 1-on-5 is bad news. We need to play hard defense and then execute the triangle on the other end - that means moving without the ball, keeping dribbling to a minimum, and finding the open man. There were a couple of possessions where I thought Kobe stopped the flow of the offense a bit - that fadeaway is great when he makes it, but it's basically a turnover if he doesn't. Luckily he or Phil saw what was going on and he made the proper adjustment.

What was this game? This was the Lakers taking care of their business. The Suns did it on their home floor and we have done it so far on ours. It doesn't mean we're going to win the series, it doesn't mean the Suns suck, and it doesn't mean we're taking on the Spurs. We stayed alive - it's not a series again until we win Sunday. We lose Sunday, and our backs are right back against the wall. If the Lakers take this game for what it is - proof that with some hustle and execution they can play with the Suns and beat them - and go into Sunday with the same or more dedication and heart, we can win Sunday. If they start thinking about winning the series now, the Suns suck, etc. that's just a recipe for disaster.

My one complaint about this game is that Barbosa didn't hit the deck once. Can someone please just knock the Brazilian down??

mamba24fan4life, i agree with you laker org is a "classy" franchise. i'm still not sold on kobe "me first" bryant. kobe still needs to prove he can lead this a laker team to a championship for breaking up the lakers in 2004.

man, with you screen name, you sound like a kobe fan first, laker fan second.

no,no: KL0044,

Fear is in the Suns team and fans minds. Not because of the Lakers, but because is clear now their chance to win a championship are slim.

The Lakers last night showed to the whole NBA league that the Suns are a team that can be beat and have many weak spots. Plus, losing to the underdog Lakers make their players worried and confused. Just look at Amare's cocky face, he's not laughing anymore. Look at D'Antoni screaming of anger at Smush at the end of the game, Nash's body language, These guys are scared if you ask me.

I don't expect the Lakers to win the series, but in the playoffs anything can happen, so if the Lakers can pull that off it would be better than win a championship.
We just need to play like we did yesterday and I can say the Suns are in big trouble. The Lakers need to keep this momentum.

Sunsfans, the big Mojo has come back to La, watch out, this is how we played when we beat Dallas/Utah/houston/San Antone, beware of "the heart of a champion" . The Suns will not beat us again This year, so you can take whiney ass MV wannabe , put him on the shelf cause its gonna get "Physical and no Floppers allowed" GO LAKERS!!! PS. The Suns look real average when they cant run up and down like the Harlem Globetrotters, until they learn to play D they wont get Past us again! Our bench will show up for the next game.

fkillah, it was a great vicoty for the laker org. like i said, kobe played TEAM ball for the most part. i did see kid kobe revert back to the "me first" bryant i've known to love (and hate) late in the fourth quarter. at least kobe had enough brains to not jack up the bad shot and trust his teammates.

"no Floppers allowed"

Since we're the source of the two most accomplished floppers in NBA history (Vlade Divac and Derek Fisher), I think we've lost all right to ever say this. :)

WELCOME BACK, LAKERS…

Kobe must have been prophetic when he said yesterday during an interview that one game can totally change a series. Let’s hope that last night’s game will do that.

What the game really reminded me of was the NBA Finals last year, when the Mavs were cruising and looked like they were going to run away with the series. Instead, two things happened to change the series completely: Wade started taking it to the rim and the Heat started playing defense. What did we see last night? Kobe started taking it to the rim and the Lakers started playing defense. If we can sustain this same formula, the Lakers can still steal this series from the Phoenix Suns.

And what great defense the Lakers played. The key was the move that I have been lobbying for all year: trapping and doubling the pick and roll like Ben Howland’s UCLA teams do. It totally took the Suns out of their offense, forced multiple turnovers, and turned the Lakers passive individual defense into an aggressive team oriented defense. Not only did the move burn clock time and slow down the game but it also took the ball out of Nash’s hands. And attacking the pick and roll the same way every time ensures that everybody knows to rotate. Great move finally, Phil!

Kobe taking it to the rim is the other key factor. You could see that he was in the same kind of rhythm that Wade got in during the Finals last year. Two or even three defenders could not keep him out of the paint. When Kobe takes it to the rim like he did last night, only good things can happen. Like layups and dunks, fouls and free throws, and dish-offs to Kwame for the dunks that got him untracked. And time off the clock, Amare on the bench, and the Suns not able to get it out of first gear. Same thing Sunday, Kobe!

I also love how Lamar is playing. Anybody who says this guy does not have heart or is not a warrior must not be watching the same games that I am. Even with his injuries, Lamar is showing his grit and no quit. He is a monster on the boards, a monster in the paint, and a monster in Marion’s playoff dreams. We may decide to trade Kwame or Bynum, but we need to make sure that Lamar is not included in any deal we make. He is just too valuable a player and too good a fit with Kobe on the Lakers.

I was also happy to see Farmar come up with some good defensive plays. I thought his effort and steals were a big key to the team coming back in the first half. And while I still could not believe that Phil actually played Smush, he did work much harder on defense and did make one key steal. But man, not knowing the shot clock that time, pure Smushy. No way would I have put that guy in down 2-zip in a seven game series. I am sure that Zakee will have something to say about that. A definite thumbs down for Phil from me.

Finally, life is again nothing but Laker purple and gold sunshine. Nothing would be sweeter than seeing the Lakers come back and do the Suns the same way on Sunday. GHFer all the way, I still say Lakers in 6. lol, ex. Pound the paint on offense and trap and double the pick and roll on defense. That’s the magic formula to melt the Suns.

Tom

gugy, good point. i actually think the laker can pull off a vicotry in the series playing TEAM ball. kobe has enough talent to win a series, just not all by himself. i've been consistent is saying that i don't like kobe, but i do respect his talent and skills. no question kobe has skills, now kobe has to be a winner. i'll say again (i know to some ad nauseum) kobe lobbied to get rid of shaq so he can be the man; so kobe has to deliver a championship in LA before he retires. Window of opportunity will be closing fast for kobe in the next 3 years especially if he has no help.

LakerTom,
"GHFer all the way, I still say Lakers in 6. lol, ex"

Why am I not surprised?

michael h:

“Our Motto for the rest of the series should be, TAKE IT TO THE PAINT!!!”

Specifically, Kobe take it to the paint. This is the same formula the Heat used to beat Dallas last year: Wade driving to the hoop every time and tough team defense. Kobe needs to make this the staple of his game for the rest of the playoffs. If he does, we really could go all the way.

Tom

Listen the Lakers went down by 16, got no production fron the bench, got less shots, shot a worse percentage and we still won, DEFENSE wins championships!!!!!