NBA 28.4

[robitale]

Laker -3

Two opening games in Phoenix are behind and what have we learned? If nothing more, those games have proved that Phil Jackson's way is working again. The Lakers don't need Bryant to score 40(+) points to have a chance. They need what worked pretty well in Game 1 and even better in Game 2. And that is the commitment to get everybody involved.

In Game 2 the Lakers got the Suns playing at their pace. They moved the ball, they played great defensively as a team and ultimately ran away from the Suns to even their best-of-seven series at 1-1. The Lakers got a little bit from everybody, a little bit more from Kobe, and as a result they have a fresh start in this series with homecourt advantage in their favour.

The Suns are the league's top-scoring team but recently, for some reason, they have lost the confidence in what they're doing. One reason might be the mediocre play of Shawn Marion who is the Suns most important player besides Steve Nash in this series. During the regular season Marion has been the one taking pressure off the other Suns but not in those two previous games. Without him grabbing rebounds and scoring at least 20 points, Phoenix is in trouble. Game 2 was just the evidence of that - while Marion struggled, Nash had to use most of his energy scoring points. As a result the other Suns never moved the ball well enough to generate consistent offense.

After winning Game 2 the Lakers are feeling as confident as they've been all season heading into tonight’s Game 3 and this time they are playing at home. Once again we expect the Lakers to play physical, get the ball inside, take away the Suns easy baskets and force Nash to be a shooter rather than playmaker. We think the Lakers can do it again and do it even better than in Game 2. Medium (-) stakes.

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