Adjustments for Game 2

• dEDGE Post Scriptum •

Game 1 was so convincingly easy that even the experts are now calling this series a possible sweep. But, before we take the plunge off the high-dive into 3-feet of water, let’s take a closer look at what went right and what needs improvement. The Suns actually shot the ball relatively well at 49.4%, except that the Lakers were even hotter at 58%. We also connected on 8-17 3-pointers for a 47.1% clip, while the Suns managed only 5-22 for 22.7%. Sound like role reversals? Channing Frye was a horrible 1-7 from behind the arc. Jared Dudley was no better at 1-5. Nash, Richardson, Dragic and Barbosa were a combined 3-10, and all of those belonged to J-Rich. Can we expect the Lakers to match their scorching pace from the perimeter? Most probably not, in fact, we should be extremely pleased if the Lakers can hit close to 50%. Our saving grace is that it is also highly unlikely that the Suns will play significantly tougher on D. They’ll switch to a zone, but don’t expect the game to suddenly become a muck-it-up, slow-it-down, slugfest. It’s just not in their DNA make-up to do so. Just ask Terry Porter that question.

Andrew Bynum was the missing piece in Game 1. Kobe scoring 40, Pau being Pau, and Lamar lighting it up for 19/19 allowed Bynum to slip under the radar. In his 19-minutes of inaction, Bynum accounted for 4-points and 4-rebounds. He and Gasol were continually burned by Robin Lopez on the pick-and-roll, with Drew laboring to get back to his man after hedging out on Nash. Gone were his explosiveness and aggressiveness, replaced by complacency and satisfaction. Noticing the slow start, Odom actually jump-started the Lakers with his play seconds into the game. Andrew will need to find his place on this squad, regardless of his current knee injury. If lateral movement is painful, he needs to beat this man up and down the court repeatedly. If he feels pain when he elevates, he needs to find a way to establish better position down low for better looks. And if all else fails, he needs to stay involved and active. On Monday, we saw Bynum simply going through the motions, content with allowing the game to come to him, rather than him bringing it from the start. His presence will be needed and we cannot allow him to slip further down the involvement scale. A passive Bynum is no better than Kyrylo Fesenko.

Punish them inside. The Lakers enjoyed a 56-36 points-in-the-paint advantage in Game 1. Yet, it didn’t seem like the Lakers made a concerted effort to continually get the ball inside to their bigs. Rather, it was Kobe in the post doing his thing, posterizing anyone who dared guard him. Lamar grabbed 7 offensive rebounds but the team only totaled 12. That’s exactly 2-more than the Suns. Again, this is where Bynum needs to insert himself into the offense. Let the Suns fire away as long as we continue to exploit their soft, gooey inside. Kobe taking up space in the post was great on Monday because he was clearly in the zone, but when Kobe operates from further out on the perimeter and feeds the bigs, large expanses of real estate open up for Bynum and Gasol to operate one-on-one. Our strength remains our size, and we should utilize this on every given opportunity. What are the Suns to do, leave Kobe to double-team Pau or Drew? Eventually they must, and that’s when Kobe takes the game over.

The Suns shot 32 free throws but only converted 24 of them for 75%. The Lakers got to the line 22 times and made 18 for 81.8%. Yet the personal fouls were 23 for the Suns and 21 for the Lakers. That means we were fouling the shooter and getting them into the bonus situation sooner. Good defense often leads to more fouls, but the Suns had more fouls that we did, yet got to line ten more times. Both Shannon Brown (3) and Jordan Farmar (5) got caught numerous times out of position, reaching and grabbing as a last resort. And this occurred with both logging under 20-minutes of game time. D-Fish is going to need all of his fouls tracking down the speedy Nash, but we cannot help the rest of the Suns by allowing them to get freebies for no apparent reason. Communication remains a problem with the second unit, and this is most noticeable on defense whenever Farmar or Brown get burned off the dribble. Both expected a big to be in the ready, help position, but instead gave way to a wide open lane instead. Help will come if you hold up your man and steer him towards the teeth of the defense. You can’t simply allow your man to whiz by you and expect someone to bail you out. Stoudemire himself was torched numerous times when he too failed to steer the attacker to his help defense. And so the same holds true for Brown and Farmar when they match up against Dragic and Barbosa. Halt his progress, turn him, and if he still gets by, so be it. But the Lakers will need a better defensive effort from the second unit if they wish to go up 2-0 before heading off to the Valley of the Sun.