Crucifido’s Corner: Suns vs. Lakers (Game 28 12/25/2007)

A Very Merry Christmas

Another day, another game – another good team game. With all the individual matchups put aside, the Lakers found out the secret ingredient to taking down talented quick teams – solid switching defense, communicative offense and above all - team play.

What the Lakers did today was key – they played the Suns to their weakness. The inside of the Suns defense was exploited by a parade of dunks and alley-oops. The Lakers showed the league that despite Phoenix’s up-tempo speed and high scoring output, they have an overwhelmingly soft underbelly. The dominance that Stoudemire once showed has faded a bit when he plays against other big men.

Bynum’s stat line (11-13 FGM, 12 boards, 28 points and 3 assists) as opposed to Stoudemire’s underwhelming box score (6-11 FGM, 6 boards, 19 points and 2 assists) shows that the Lakers now have what it takes to put the Suns back on their heels in the paint. Better yet they have the tools and the know how to make Phoenix expend their energy on the defensive end. Between the Fisher pushing Nash into the high post, Bynum pulling Stoudemire from weak to strong and back again or moving Amare underneath the bucket too far to use his reach, or Kobe running the show from all points on the floor, the Lakers made the Suns work.

The more they stayed aggressive and focused on both running their plays and using their athleticism on the offensive end, the more they made Phoenix use equal if not more energy doing what they don’t do best – defense. That time spent keeping up with Kobe on the perimeter and middle, looking after Ariza running the baseline with smooth ease, trying to contest Bynum pushing the Suns to crowd the middle and leave the mid-range exposed made the game swing back into Lakers favor time and again. When any momentum was being stolen (largely from the Lakers beginning to slip back into slow rotation on the perimeter), it was the Lakers defense that got them back into the game.

Again, like the rest of this season, there’s a big difference for the Lakers this year - the ability to keep control on the offensive end and stick with their game plan. Rather than before when they would try to adapt to their opponent’s style of game, often resulting in jagged, lost play and avoidable losses. In other words, the Lakers stuck with what they can do best and didn’t lose sight of it.

Individually there were some great performances today.

Kobe played one of his best leadership games of the year. Sure he had the usual scoring output. It always seems odd that a 38 point game for Kobe kind of goes by the way side nowadays. Today’s game had the other elements in it though you like to see – assists and complete trust in his teammates. That trust is a two-way street, but it does get initialized by Kobe and that’s just what he did today. A good half of his drives into the paint or along the baseline today were to set up teammates with open shots. Using that attention from defenses to get others on the team going will eventually benefit Kobe too.

The more he passes off to teammates, increasing their confidence and getting their game going, the less defensives pressure gets thrown his way. For a good portion of this game the Suns were scrambling to either split space on the high post to double Kobe or his eventual moves or keep pace with the growing threat of other on the court. The one thing I’d like to see Kobe do is play his game the way he can and back off of stunting his play in anticipation of the whistle. Go about your business, the fouls will come.

By the way that dunk at the end of the 3rd quarter was a pretty definite answer to any question of Kobe’s spring in his step.

Slipping back down to the 3rd option today, Odom played a much smarter and solid game. His length and size coupled with Andrew in the middle kept the Suns from getting any kind of position on the defensive boards. Though his game wasn’t an offensive juggernaut, it was his size alongside the paint that kept the Suns looking for him. When Odom is put into the position of a role player on this team, his game flourishes. Though his shot was nowhere near as consistent as it needs to be, it was his run from screen up top into the mid post that pulled a lot of pressure off the mid-range.

His early positioning right outside the block was pulling his man off the baseline just enough to open position for Bynum in the low post, Ariza running the baseline or Kobe driving on the right side of the paint. It was another game that goes to prove that Odom’s best asset is playing the silent killer, the forgotten man in the offense. That silent role plays into Odom’s personality and talents on both ends of the court. His defensive rebounding was on the money again, keeping the Lakers with two viable rebounding options in the post against a Suns team that has few options on the backboards.

That was a well deserved career game for Andrew today. I think that this game played versus one of the NBA’s most athletic big men showed that Bynum does have what it takes to not only keep up with, but make the NBA’s big men work to keep up with him rather than vice versa. Andrew’s realization and subsequent use of his remarkable reach played a huge factor in this one. With a short Phoenix team, the advantage of Bynum’s reach and lift in the paint was finally used as it should be. The steady diet of alley-oops and high post passes into Bynum to set up motion off the post today was hopefully a preview of things to come. Bynum proved today that his newfound ( to this season) nose for rebounds and aggressive determination to get missed shots or first shot attempts put back with strength can be a big time weapon. Stoudemire was often pushed back out of the block on offense, relegating Amare to more of a help man on the3 mid post instead of the low post defensive presence he’s been in the past.

A couple back door plays escaped Bynum (and Odom for that matter) but the big thing today was that those mistakes were sealed up after only two major slips. It wasn’t a chronic defensive gap left by Andrew today. The problem was addressed quickly and assertively by the Lakers man in the middle.

One key play came in the third quarter where Bynum was given the ball on a small run to the hoop. Stoudemire was holding position firm in front of him, but instead of Andrew running in a straight line over Amare and getting the offensive foul, Bynum stopped, gathered himself and created space with a step back to get the foul. Those kind of quick witted aware plays are another thing that’s marking the improvement in Andrew from year 2 to 3.

Now onto the Lakers’ currently most intriguing player – Trevor Ariza. Apart from the monster dunk on hill that was simply astounding to see (although he’s been threatening a big throw down like that here and there) it was Trevor’s athletic defense that mad a big difference today. He did a great job ion sealing off the baseline runs that Phoenix loves to pull off. Barbosa or Nash will often take the ball alongside the paint and then along the baseline moving from one side to the other and looking to drag his man through a screen to open up the kick pass to the cutter in the middle or the spot up outside. Today Trevor was seeing that run early in the play and stepping in to cut it off. Taking that move away from Suns ball handlers pushed Phoenix to curl back out up top and break their play. Those broken plays were often leading missed rotations on the outside or out of rhythm shots.

That kind of heads up, aware defense does far more damage than any dunk could ever do – though that was an amazing one. In turn Trevor was taking those baseline runs back to the Suns on their end. Moving from weak to strong or back again then popping out to the 3 point line or to mid-range to get a pass or a run at a board was making the Suns work harder than they’ve had to in the past. That element of movement off the ball was creating room for both Ariza himself and everyone else on the court. In essence it was taking Phoenix out of their quick help style of defense and pushing them to a more one on one defensive stance.

It was an auspicious start for Trevor today, one start that resulted in a heck of a solid game for what could become a key player for the Lakers in the very near future.

Farmar’s decision making today was spot on. For a second year guard his decisions on the offensive end were on the money. Pulling back to wait for the team to get on the offensive end in the waning minutes though numbers favored a lay-up, looking for rolls into the post from Andrew or Kobe while keeping good space between him and Nash or Barbosa and taking shots in rhythm or the context of a play were things that Farmar excelled at.

After Derek’s incredibly hot first half, it’s a rare luxury to have a player of Jordan’s leadership and natural point guard skills come in off the bench. A big change from the sketchy point guard core of last year that would give up points and more importantly lanes to the Suns at every turn.

Speaking of Derek, the guy has become a reliable outside shooter. He was always a decent shooter that could sink a shot when you needed it, but this year the decision making of Derek has been fantastic. The ill-advised jumpers are all but vanished. Better yet, what he did today versus Nash was great. He was pushing Nash to play more defense than he’s had to in the past against the Lakers. In both of the games versus the Suns, Fisher has pushed Nash back onto his heels defensively. Exposing Nash’s less than adequate defense was key in getting the Lakers more room to move on both ends.

Derek made Nash work for what he had to get. Of course, the going under the screens thing was more than present as Nash began to heat up from the arc, but that won’t be changing any time soon. That’s Fisher’s hitch in his game and it doesn’t look to change by the time he retires. What balanced out the hot shooting of Nash there for a bit was what I mentioned, Fisher making Nash work on the defensive end harder than he has against the Lakers in recent years.

Hey it was a great game to finally break the Christmas Day Curse for the Lakers. It was another notch in the belt of both the team and a couple key players. Now just like every other game, the big thing is maintaining this level of commitment to team and defensive minded play. The more those things become habit, the easier the wins become.

Hopefully those wins continue with throughout the rest of this month.