Lakers favored to regain upper hand
By Doug Upstone
Whats the old saying, When mamas not happy, nobodys happy. A form of that saying is taking place in the Los Angeles Lakers locker room, with Kobe Bryant taking the place of mama.
We have to play with a sense of urgency, Bryant said after his team lost in the desert for second time, and understand this team can beat us.
Kobe, when asked what was wrong, didnt mince words and tersely stated his feelings. We lost the game, Bryant said, because our defense sucked.
Our focus was on the other side of the floor, which doesnt win championships. So we need to get back to ground zero when it comes to that.
Thats the conundrum with the 2009-10 Lakers squad, every good stretch of basketball means Margaritaville and the passion and intensity necessary dwindles with prosperity.
Bryant had 74 points, 21 assists and 16 rebounds in two games in downtown Phoenix, but didnt get enough assistance from his supporting cast.
Kobe had a great game, Lamar Odom said about Game 4. Too bad we werent able to come along with him.
Los Angeles returns to the Staples Center where they are 41-7 (21-26-1 ATS) this season and need to reestablish control of the series which is tied at 2-2.
The Lakers are 12-3 ATS after three or more consecutive Overs this year and while Kobe is complaining about the defensive effort, other wonder if the Suns zone defense has gotten into the heads of L.A. players.
"It's the zone," Lakers center Andrew Bynum admitted. "We're settling for outside jump shots. They were out there moving that ball, they were confident playing at home and they really just shot the ball well. They had everybody spaced out so everybody's running around."
Though, as coach Phil Jackson pointed out, his team has shot 48.3 and 49.5 percent in the last two losses while averaging 107.5 points per game, but does some of the hesitation on the Lakers offense carry over unto the defensive end, causing lapses in concentration for a club not known for Terminator single-mindedness.
What the Lakers zone offense has also lacked is getting the ball into high post consistently, with cutters running baseline or weakside cutters slashing to the rim. While Ron Artest is still a fine defensive player, the loss of Trevor Ariza hurts the Lakers in this situation, since he has greater quickness, understands how to cut more effectively to the basket and is a more consistent three-point shooter than Artest.
Phoenix is bubbling with confidence and is 14-6 ATS in road encounters after a combined score of 205 points or more in a trio of tilts this season. Channing Frye found his misplaced jump shot and the Suns reserves lambasted the Lakers bench 54-20 after being mildly ineffective for the first three games. "The bench played fantastic," the Suns' Steve Nash said.
Coach Alvin Gentry is earning his coaching onions as he left his bench players in the game for almost nine minutes of the final quarter, since they had produced 18-3 run, essentially putting Los Angeles away.
"We believe in those guys and they really believe in themselves," Gentry said. "I thought they were much better defensively than they were offensively, and they were great offensively."
Though no Phoenix player would publicly admit this, they know a Game 5 upset gives them best chance to win the series with Saturdays conflict back at Planet Orange. A Game 7 win in L.A. would a monumental task to pull off for Phoenix.
BetUS.com has the Lakers as 7.5-point pick, with total of 217.5. Pau Gasol and the rest of his teammates have to play like they did during eight-game postseason winning streak (7-1 ATS) and they are 18-5 ATS when tied in a playoff series since 1996. The Suns are 33-14 ATS after allowing 105 points or more and will have to solve the Los Angeles team in the yellow uniforms since they are 1-7 and 2-6 ATS in L.A.
TNT continues with the series at 9:00 Eastern and the Lake Show is 8-0 OVER after two straight games where both teams scored 100 points or more this season.